


The Truth One Chooses

by rekishi



Category: Merlin (TV), The X-Files
Genre: Autopsies, Blood and Gore, Crossover, Doctor Who References, Early in Canon, Implied Torture, Imprisonment, Innuendo, M/M, Medieval Medicine, Mistaken for Being in a Relationship, Mythical Beings & Creatures, POV Multiple, Time Travel, Torture Implement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-05
Updated: 2013-04-05
Packaged: 2017-12-07 13:36:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 37,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/749112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rekishi/pseuds/rekishi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Although multidimensionality suggests infinite outcomes in an infinite number of universes, each universe can produce only one outcome. Or least that was the theory as far as Mulder had always considered it, even if Scully would never agree with it. </p><p>Merlin on the other hand had come to hate the idea of destiny and anything related to it over the past year. Too much stuff had happened that didn't make sense and with the dragon dead, finding his own way seemed like an insurmountable obstacle. </p><p>Maybe time could take care of itself, one way or another.</p><p>Or: The One Where Mulder and Scully Go To Camelot</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Revelation

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this about three or four years ago, but never got around to cleaning it up and editing it. So don't draw and quarter me for anything that is not compliant with later timelines as far as Merlin is concerned.
> 
> Merlin timeline: Post S-1.
> 
> X-Files timeline: Undefined, but more towards S6 or earlier, as opposed to later. I rewatched a bunch of Monster of the Week episodes for this to get the proper quotes and looked at some time travel ideas back in the day. It is not NECESSARY to know XF, but it certainly helps to catch the little hints I've placed.
> 
> This was surprisingly much fun to write and rewrite, I have to admit. 
> 
> WARNING: The rating is not only for the sexual parts, the blood and gore tag is meant serious!
> 
> The title is a reference to a quote from Johann Gottlieb Fichte, _"Was für eine Philosophie man wähle, hängt davon ab, was für ein Mensch man ist."_ , which freely translates to "The truth one chooses depends on the kind of person one is."

The hinges moved with a high pitched squeal and the door to the dark room opened with a low groan. It was one of the in-castle storage rooms without windows that Arthur entered. A pair of blue eyes squinted up at him in the low light of the lantern he had brought; Merlin was watching him silently. The prince set down the light and seated himself across from his manservant, shoving over the jug of water with his other hand and watching as the other man gulped down the liquid greedily. "Why did you tell me?" he finally asked when the jug seemed halfway empty and Merlin had wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

"Your father is away treatying and I knew you couldn't sentence me to death by yourself?" Merlin offered after a long moment of silence, not apologising, just looking.

Arthur sighed. "No, not why did you tell me _now_ ; why did you tell me _at all_?" It had unnerved him for the whole two days he had kept his manservant down here, seething with his own rage but knowing he could not put him in the dungeons, lest it become official. For some reason, Arthur didn't want it to be official. Not until they had this talk. Or something. He didn't really know, but he really was averse to the idea of Merlin in the dungeons; the guards on duty there were usually anything but squeamish.

"Because there was no way I could have kept this to myself for much longer," Merlin admitted with a sigh and knuckled his eyes so badly that Arthur reached out automatically and pulled his hands off his face. When he tried to take his own hand away again Merlin kept a death grip on it. "Look, Arthur." After a second he glanced down as if he only then realised he was still keeping that hand captive and hastily released him. "I don't know what to say."

No, of course Merlin wouldn't. And really, there was no arguing the facts, no matter from which angle they looked at it.

_"I can do magic, Arthur."_

At that moment Arthur thought his heart had plummeted into his stomach, only it was the stack of logs next to the fire that had strewn itself all over the room and made a noise as if the castle was collapsing around him. Merlin's self-conscious look had been enough to let him know who exactly was responsible for that. And that had been that; Arthur had taken him by his neckerchief and put him into one of the unused storage rooms without a word.

Merlin was a bloody sorcerer. And sorcerers had to be put to death, that was the law. But this was Merlin, who didn't have a malicious bone in his body; Merlin, who didn't seem to mind being put in the stocks; Merlin, who Arthur had taken to his bed after the incident with the Questing Beast and not let him sleep in his own quarters since. And he was a sorcerer. But there was no way that the same Merlin, who was the worst manservant in the history of kingdoms and a terrible liar to boot (except, it seemed, when it came to his magical abilities), had the same black heart that Uther seemed to think was innate to all of that breed. That put Arthur, as the Crown Prince, into a terrible bind between obligation to his station and personal affections.

"Neither do I," he answered quietly.

There was another silence, which Merlin ended once again. "I don't mean you any harm. I never would."

Arthur snorted. "I know that. And even if you did, you'd probably never get your act together, if you're as bad a sorcerer as you're a manservant." He blinked. That was probably all there was to it, anyway. Getting up, he stretched out a hand and was rewarded with a surprised stare. "Come on."

"What...what are you doing?" But Merlin gripped the outstretched limb quickly and let himself be pulled up and along out of the room, keeping one hand twisted in Arthur's tunic.

Arthur threw him a look and looped one arm around the other man's shoulders. "I'm giving you a free pass, Merlin." He wouldn't stop to examine his motives; this was something his gut was telling him and anyway, breaking in a new manservant? Was a pain in the arse.

~*~

He thought maybe he had deliberately forgotten how boring court was when he was holding it alone and he did wonder how his father managed it whenever Arthur wasn't around. All those people who came seeking his wisdom (that Morgana claimed he didn't possess, while raving about whyever Uther had put Camelot into his son's hands) and his judgement. Or maybe they just thought they had something to offer that their sovereign (or his proxy) might want. Which, of course, wasn't the case.

The prince sighed quietly and shifted in his seat. The day's business was especially tedious and he yearned for it to be finally, _finally_ over. Maybe, when he was King, many years from now, he should make Merlin wear a hat to court, a really ridiculous hat each and every day so Arthur could look at him and at least laugh about _something_. Pointy hats. Maybe that wasn't such a bad idea. Hats with feathers and tufts. Arthur certainly wouldn't fall asleep when he could look at his manservant wearing ridiculous hats.

Eventually, the proceedings came to an end. "Is that all?" he asked, almost ritual-like, and when heads were nodded all around he was just standing up when Sir Percival entered the throne hall.

"One more, your Highness," he announced and looked at his prince. "There have been several reports by travellers who came in today, telling of a man and a woman in extremely foreign dress stalking the woods around Camelot. They seemed rather...suspicious, from what has been told all day. I thought you might like to check on this personally?"

Arthur most certainly did want to.


	2. Out There

"Mulder, I'm sure this is not the way," Dana Scully observed and let exasperation color her voice to let her partner know exactly what she thought of his insistence that he had figured out a path out of the thick green forest they had found themselves in. And this was different than the almost tropical plantlife of a rain forest they had seen in Florida before, dryer and sturdier.

"Trust me, Scully." Mulder waved her concerns aside as he always did and trudged on to wherever he was leading them. "I was an Indian Guide after all." She wanted to ask where exactly he thought they were going when she heard voices.

"Really, Merlin, you're making entirely too much noise, you'll let everyone know we're coming. Why did I bring you along anyway?"

"The _horses_ will let everyone know we're coming. And I'm here, because you haven't let me out of your sight ever since that day you locked me in that makeshift dungeon of yours, I suppose." That was a second voice, and Scully stretched a hand out for her partner to alert him to what she had heard over the sound of leaves being shifted aside. It was too late though; two large horses suddenly appeared as if out of nowhere in front of them, each with a man on its back.

One of them - with fair hair and clothed in _chainmail_ of all things - blinked at the two agents, who stood rooted to the spot, and made a move for his hip. Trained instincts, honed to perfection in the Academy, took over and both agents drew their weapons while the blond man produced a sword. There was a moment of mutual surprise, it seemed, and then the second man - dark haired and dressed in the plain but functional clothes they'd seen on all the people that had been passing them throughout the last few hours - spoke up. "Arthur, you might want to be careful." The second voice, Scully registered absently.

"Shut up, Merlin," the man said, the first voice.

"This is a joke," Mulder stated and holstered his weapon again, and all she could do was stare at him. Had he actually lost his mind? "Arthur and Merlin? What's this, some kind of medieval roleplay?" He turned away and that sword was at his throat in an instant, quicker than she could have ever though to react.

"You're speaking in riddles," the blond man's (Arthur, supposedly) eyes narrowed and he flicked the blade ever so lightly that the flat of it rested against Mulder's throat. But there was no alarm in her partner's eyes and Arthur seemed more than capable of controlling his weapon. Still...

"Take that sword away," Scully commanded, but it was only met with a raised eyebrow from one of them and a covert smile from the other.

Without taking his eyes off Mulder, Arthur addressed her in a casual tone. "You don't seem to know who I am, else you wouldn't talk like that. Unless you're from the same place as Merlin, then maybe insolence is something you're born with."

"They're not from Ealdor," the other man remarked calmly and seemed entirely unconcerned that there was a weapon trained on his friend, as if he had actually no idea what it was.

"King Arthur and his merry men?" Mulder spoke up almost simultaneously and she wanted to smack him. Hard.

"That was Robin Hood," she answered and slowly put the safety back on her gun but didn't holster it.

Mulder shot her a look and grinned, nodded. "Right. Knights of the round table, then." 

The two horsemen traded a confused look and the dark haired one (Merlin, obviously, and by now she thought she might really be in a show and filmed by a hidden camera; although that didn't explain their sudden change of environment) moved his horse to stand between her and Arthur who then sheathed his way-too-real-looking sword and dismounted to step up to her partner and walk around him.

"I don't know what nonsense you're sprouting," Arthur said, and Scully saw that he was much younger than she had thought squinting against the sun at first, maybe not even in his mid twenties, "but you sure are the people we're looking for, I suppose." Then he hollered something and the next instant they were surrounded by half a dozen more men on horses, in chainmail and with swords in their hands. She was beginning to think maybe this wasn't a prank gone too far, after all.

~*~

"I would apologise for the somewhat rough treatment," Arthur said and let himself fall into his seat in the throne hall while waving the knights away, "but since we did not receive word of your coming here beforehand, we didn't expect you. With recent developments, people are not usually pleased to see foreigners stalking the woods so close to castle and village." The two foreigners stood before the three seats of which only two were occupied at the moment, since King Uther had left for the mainland. Merlin wondered if this was his way of testing his son's ability to actually rule and not only to fight.

"Of course, your majesty," the woman said evenly while her companion still looked around the great hall eyes so big it was almost ridiculous. Didn't they have castles where that man came from? And knights? And what had those black things they had have anyway, the ones that were now resting on a small table next to Arthur, he had that especially brought in. Morgana was sitting somewhat pensive in her own seat, she clearly didn't know what to think of these two newcomers either.

Arthur raised both eyebrows and exchanged a look with his father's ward. "I'm the Crown Prince, not the King," he announced, "if you need to use a title, 'your highness' will suffice. This is the Lady Morgana, ward of my father, King Uther. Looking at your manner and quality of your dress I assume you are here on some dignitary mission? Your names and that of your lord?"

The red-haired woman looked somewhat taken aback for a moment and Merlin could see that she elbowed her companion into the ribs in the least obvious way but it still made him grin. "My name is Dana, this here next to me is Fox. We are, indeed, diplomats from...ah...a place far to the west. You will probably not know its name."

He could see Morgana frown and there was something not quite right about that sentence. "The King is on good terms with King Baylad of the Western Isles," she said and that was...more of a lie than the truth after the incident a year ago but it wasn't his station to say anything about that. He was only a manservant after all...and the one the Crown Prince of Camelot was currently sleeping with but there was no need to say anything about that little fact either.

Meanwhile, Arthur had creased his forehead, obviously trying to remember if he had seen them before or maybe determining if the woman's companion, Fox, was as dim as he seemed, because that man was still staring around the room and hadn't said a word. Well, maybe the woman was the important one and he was only her bodyguard. "No." She shook her head presently. "Farther west, even. I would be surprised if you could find the place on your maps. We have...travelled for a long time, I can hardly say what year it is anymore."

The prince just nodded. "Very well, then. Lady Dana, Lord Fox-"

"We're not...noble, actually." Those were the first words the man had said since he had asked if they were joking about their identity, so maybe he wasn't dim after all.

Eyebrows having climbed into his hairline again, Arthur cleared his throat. He didn't like being interrupted by people he knew already, these things were so much worse with strangers. "Very well, however we still have to address you somehow, don't we? We will grant you the courtesy title as form of address for the time being, unless you want to try for knighthood?" Lord Fox looked like he wanted nothing more than to eagerly nod his head but the woman stepped on his toes and he grimaced. Merlin was somewhat amused. "Since the two of you have been travelling alone together for this long and from your obvious acquaintance I assume you are married. Quarters will be assigned accordingly. I will expect you refreshed and somewhat rested for dinner in the hall. That is all."

"Ah, your highness?" the woman piped up once more and took several steps towards the prince. A guard stepped up as well but Arthur held him off with one movement of his hand, looking expectantly at the foreigner. "We would require fresh clothing, especially since we seem to stand out here, quite a bit."

He nodded thoughtfully. "I meant to ask you about that later. What happened to your luggage? Surely, you haven't been travelling all this time with only what you're wearing?"

"No, your highness," she answered and Merlin had to give it to her, she had the honorifics down pat much better than he himself. "We were travelling overland by horse. They got spooked," she threw a quick side glance at her companion as if it had been his fault, "so bad they went over a ravine. It was only so much that we could save ourselves from sharing their fate."

Arthur looked at Merlin and he knew, they were thinking the same. It wasn't unlikely this was related the recent incidences.

The prince was quick to regain his regal stance though and smiling, he nodded again. "Certainly. I'll send someone to take your measurements and see what we can find. Fitting clothes might be somewhat difficult to come by but we will not leave you to traverse the castle grounds naked, of course. I will see you later this day. Please follow the page behind you." Lord Fox seemed to catch up first that this had been a dismissal and he pulled Lady Dana along with him and out of the throne hall.

"Arthur, those two are _never_ married," Merlin said with a sigh. A blind man could have seen that, although they certainly were familiar with one another; but those had not been the signs of marriage.

The other man looked up. "I know that, idiot. But they're obviously rather lost at the moment and if it was me, all alone in a foreign country from a place which no one has even heard of." His voice was dripping with sarcasm. "And you were the only familiar face I wouldn't let you out of my sight, either. So this is just as well. We'll figure out who and what they are in time."

"Like we don't have other problems," Morgana murmured and got up to take her leave.

Arthur sighed in exasperation. "And what was I to do? Put them in the dungeons until we have verified their identities in another couple of years or maybe never? As long as they don't pose a threat to Camelot, we can treat them like guests."

"Have you thought that maybe they could be responsible for what's been happening?" She whirled around in a flow of blue dress and faced them.

Shrugging, the prince got up as well and went towards her. "They don't look like they've been mauling dozens of pieces of large livestock with their teeth recently, Morgana." He left her standing there and Merlin thought maybe sometimes he should be a little nicer to the woman who was essentially his sister.


	3. It's a Kind of Magic

Mulder let himself fall back on the single large bed that was dominating the room, practically giggling. The last time she had heard her partner _giggle_ had been that ill-fated case in Texas with the....'vampires'. "Scully, pinch me. We're at the court of King Arthur!"

Sighing, she leaned against the table and regarded him sternly. "I thought he said he wasn't King yet. So that would be _Prince_ Arthur, then."

"Details, Scully. What it means is we travelled through time!" he exclaimed and grinned up at her. Really, Mulder was so much like a little kid sometimes.

"Mulder, time travel isn't possible and you know that, at least not practically," she added the last bit before he could get the idea to quote from her undergrad thesis again. "There certainly wasn't any faster than light travel involved, that amount of energy is just not available and we would have been crushed by the velocity, it's not like we had a protective hull anywhere around us. And that aside, how do you think that should have been achieved? Even if the theory of traverseable wormholes was finitely validated, there still would be the need for some kind of device to make use of them. There was no such device. Additionally, a technology can't travel before the time it was invented. That's why tourists from the future can't be among us, because that technology does not yet exist." Scully took a deep breath because, while that was the easiest way to explain it, it was pointless; Mulder was nodding at her and signalling his understanding but she had doubts he was seriously listening...or that he cared. "Also, we would have had travelled to a parallel dimension as well. I seem to remember the Arthurian Legend to have been deemed fiction." She was getting a headache.

A knock on the door interrupted the answer that clearly was on her partner's lips and he called whoever it was in, instead. It was a boy of maybe thirteen, carrying a stack of clothes which they had been measured for right after entering the room. Scully wondered how they had managed to sew together something fitting this quickly. After he laid the clothes down on the table and set down the shoes with a nervous smile he vanished again without a word. "Think we're scaring the natives?" Mulder got up and frowned at the historically correct cloth. It seemed all well made, it was clean, tunics and breeches in what seemed his size and a green dress of some flowing material, which might as well have been silk, for her. Pretty.

"Well, the prince did say we came unannounced," she answered and shook out the dress. "And there seems to be more going on." The dress was not quite fit for the weather, which seemed warm but might as well turn cold again; there was still a chill to the air that hinted at cold nights. That was when she spotted the various clothes that probably served as layers that were now left on the table. "How's your knowledge about medieval Europe, Mulder?"

"Plague and pestilence. And knights. Chivalry. Sword and sorcery, of course. Which takes me back to Arthurian Legend." He began to take off his jacket and unbutton his shirt. "It is likely that King Arthur got puzzled together from various different Welsh legends and poems, the so called Welsh Triads. The beginning lies in the 12th century, when some guy named Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his 'History of British Kings' and mentions Arthur as well as his father Uther Pendragon and also the wizard Merlin, who aids both of them. The love triangle about Lancelot and Arthur's Queen got added somewhat later and was cemented by Thomas Malory in the 15th century into what we know today. Subsequently, people started to interpret the story differently, resulting in the many versions of the tale we know today, which include romance, incest and tragic deaths, as befits a medieval romance of a certain quality." He frowned and pulled his undershirt over his head as well to replace it with a tunic.

The effect was interesting. He was still standing in his slacks and good shoes but wore a certainly well made, but definitely not-quite-fitting, tunic of indeterminable style. Talk about anachronism.

"You know an awful lot about the matter," she pointed out and looked around for somewhere to change as well. Unfortunately, bathrooms were not an amenity of this era. "So that would place us...when?"

"Oxford offered classes on Arthurian Literature. I took one. 6th, maybe 7th century? The Romans are gone, but the Catholic church is only on the rise." Shrugging, he proceeded to untie his shoes.

"The building style seems rather sophisticated for that early. Also, no priest made any noise that we were sent by the devil." She frowned, knowing it was somewhat poor to assume such a thing, but there were enough records in existence to testify to such events.

Mulder looked at her for a moment and shook his head. "There's also no evidence of magic, despite the fact that the one boy seems to be called Merlin. He seems to be some kind of servant. Guess we got us an X-File there, Scully." He stared at the breeches that were still lying over the back of a chair, then at the dress over her arm.

"Guess that answers the question about male and female agents consorting in the same hotel room." She smiled and turned away.

"Well, Scully, I'd hardly call this a hotel room. We don't even have magic fingers!" He gestured at the bed and she rolled her eyes.

They had been called down for dinner and were seated at a table, not a round one, as Scully quietly pointed out to her partner. Also present were Prince Arthur, Lady Morgana, Merlin and a girl that had already been there during the audience earlier but who hadn't been introduced. Surprisingly, she seemed to be of African descent, a rarity in this time and place. She as well as Merlin weren't seated but remained standing, obviously settled with the duties of servants. At the head was an empty chair, probably the King's seat under normal circumstances. The table was laden with all kinds of foods, although it could not be quite called a feast and Scully suspected that the leftovers would supplement the servants' meals later on. There also was no cutlery or plates.

"Excuse the sparse meal, but as we pointed out earlier, you were not expected." Arthur nodded at the bowls and pots. "Please enjoy your food."

"Oh we will, your highness," she assured him, but Mulder was nudging her beneath the table.

"Scully. Scully, there are no forks. Or plates. How...?"

She threw a glance in his direction and pursed her lips. "Seems your Arthurian Literature class didn't cover that," she answered and mimicked Lady Morgana, who had taken a flattish piece of what seemed to be brown bread and started to load it with food; simply grabbed something with her hand and angled it over. Mulder looked at her, somewhat shocked for a moment but seemed to catch on to the fact that no one would make an exception for him and did the same.

"I hope you found the clothes I had brought to your satisfaction?" Arthur looked them over with raised eyebrows and for some reason his...sister? betrothed? looked extremely satisfied when their eyes met.

"Certainly," Mulder answered between bites, looking at his fingers dripping with fat and liquid and shrugged before continuing to eat.

"Very well. We will have more brought later. We just thought you would like to change before having something to eat," Morgana smiled. "I'm happy the dress fits you so well, Lady Dana, some quick alterations had to be made at the hem due to our differences in height. I know it is fashionable at other courts to drag your skirts after you for at least half the length of your own body but I prefer them slightly shorter. I hope you don't mind me taking the liberty to enforce my own choice of dress on you this way."

Almost choking on the wine she was drinking Scully nodded and swallowed. "No, of course, I don't mind. Thank you for the dress, it is lovely." She smiled and it sure was, even though it was different from her usual dress code. But when in Rome...or in this case, when in medieval Britain, she thought. Mulder must be ecstatic, even though he was holding back all the questions that certainly were burning on his tongue back in an admirable fashion. Or maybe he was just too busy wolfing down all that food that was on his trencher.

Dinner was pleasant enough, all things considered, and they learned a little more; Merlin was indeed the Prince's manservant as well as some kind of apprentice to the court physician, and the black girl's name was Guinevere, at which Mulder raised his eyebrows almost all the way into his hairline; his jaw falling open for half a second. She was Morgana's handmaid but seemed to be treated infinitely nicer than Merlin. This was possibly their masters' fault, because if Scully had been asked to describe Prince Arthur with one word it would probably have been 'bully'. But there was affection in his bullying along with a lot of other things one associated with a medieval prince, such as arrogance and aloofness, so it didn't sit actually wrong with her. They asked whether she was from the western isles, and she guessed they meant Ireland (because of her name) but Scully just shook her head. There were questions about their home country and they tried to answer as honestly as possible without mentioning anything that would seem too off to their dinner companions.

It wasn't until they had finished eating and washed their fingers in basins of water that Arthur gestured for his servant and Merlin brought in their weapons, carried them wrapped into cloth. "Don't worry, I took the clips out before handing them over," Mulder murmured next to her and she relaxed a little. Hopefully nothing would happen.

But of course, that was too much to hope for. She couldn't have pinpointed the exact moment, but suddenly one of the guns went off and her first reflex, long honed by the Academy, was to move her hand to where her holster normally sat but which was now vacant. Her second was to look at everyone; Mulder was murmuring something about a bullet left in the chamber and she wanted to smack him on the head more than anything right then, but everyone else sat or stood with wide eyes glued to the shining black metal in the prince's hand. The shot had hit no one and the bullet had lodged itself harmlessly into one of the walls. The spell of quiet was broken when Arthur frowned and said in a voice that sounded infinitely more dangerous for its quietness, "Magic." Guinevere covered her mouth quickly with her hand in shock and Merlin bit his lip, Morgana looked at everyone in turn until her eyes finally settled on the two agents and suddenly Scully had a feeling that something bad was under way.

"It's not magic," she stated calmly, "it's a..." She frowned, unsure of these people would know the meaning of the word 'machine'. "It's a device originally developed for hunting but we carry it for our protection. Now that you have let it loose, it needs to be reloaded before it can be used again." Not quite the truth but a prince would certainly understand the need for sophisticated weapons for hunting and protection. Still, Scully nodded at Mulder so he would explain the mechanism to the young man while she grabbed one of the knives that had been supplied to cut the fruits they'd had for dessert and made her way to the wall. No need to leave anachronistic evidence behind. Sighing, she wondered how she had already accepted that they indeed _were_ in 6th century Britain, but working with Mulder for almost six years and seeing the things she'd seen would open most people's minds for the seemingly impossible.

The bullet was deep in the stone and it took some prying and prodding with the knife to get an angle in which it might be possible to lever it out when she felt another presence close to her. Guinevere knelt down to her right. "Was it really not magic?"

Looking back, Scully could only shake her head. "No. I don't think your artisans could replicate it, even here at court, but it has nothing to do with magic. There is no magic were Mu- Lord Fox and I come from." The bullet popped loose and fell into her hands; they both got up. She raised her eyebrows at the young woman who averted her eyes.

"Arthur can't and won't sentence anyone to death, that's the privilege of the King, under these kinds of circumstances at least. Magic is banned in the kingdom, anyone who practises it will be executed either by decapitation or by burning at the stake." It was hardly more than a whisper and the topic clearly was one that caused her distress. Scully wasn't sure how to react.

She settled on nodding. "Thank you for the warning but...as I said, we have no magic." The girl nodded and went back to Lady Morgana's side.

"Can you believe it? A Camelot in which magic is _forbidden_?" Mulder asked later when they were back in their room as he examined his cell phone, which was still showing the no signal screen. "Who was it that said sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic? Asimov?"

"I think that was Clarke, Mulder, Asimov said that if magic existed it had to follow the First and Second Law of Thermodynamics." When her partner looked at her with a most surprised expression she just smiled and shrugged. "That should answer your question on magic, too, then. We should try to find a way home."

"And how, Scully? If we're well and truly in the 6th century... I don't have a time machine handy."

"Well Mulder, I am still not sure this is not all an elaborate hoax." The man raised his phone along with his eyebrows, as if to provide evidence to the contrary. "Signals can be jammed", Scully countered.

"Scully, I think this is for real. I don't know how to explain it but…how do you think they would have gotten us _into_ the hoax?"

"Kidnapping?"

Her partner seemed considerably sceptical. "I remember putting on my coat and stepping through the office door and finding myself on leaf-covered ground in a forest. You?" Grudgingly, she had to admit to the same experience and let herself sink down into the second chair.


	4. Wargwulf

Arthur had caught both of Merlin's hands in his and held them securely above the man's head while his other hand had found its way beneath his tunic, his weight pinning Merlin to the mattress. It allowed him easy access to all of Merlin and he could also make him shut up with simple but very effective means, if he wanted to.

And how much he wanted to, while his hand was slowly stroking up and down Merlin's side in caress, in turn nipping at his jaw and kissing him quiet again.

They had discussed the happenings of dinner over supper, which had been a quiet affair up in Arthur's own chambers as it always was, or had been, for a while already. "So what do you think of our...guests?"

"I think they're as confused about them being here as we are." That had been the answer as he was contemplating the cup of wine in his hand. Yes, Arthur had seen that, too. The two visitors had clearly been uncomfortable, which was one reason why he had chanced having dinner without a guard present. It had been risky and both Merlin and Morgana had let him know that much in not too subtle words. But it had probably aided in winning their trust, even though he was not entirely satisfied with some of their explanations.

"Magic or no?" He was rather sure that Merlin would have let him know right away if the hunting device had been magical and Lord Fox had gone to certain lengths to explain to them the mechanism (although there was still the question of what exactly was in the bolts that made them shoot out of the device; he had not been able to explain that too well, saying he didn't know the exact components of the powdered substance either).

"Didn't Lord Fox explain it really well? No. I don't suspect them of... Gwen said Lady Dana said to her there was no magic where they're from." And Arthur would certainly have loathed to imprison...foreign diplomats into the palace dungeons, even though his father had never had such qualms.

Merlin moaned but all Arthur heard was the sound of the door opening and someone saying, "Oops." He looked up sharply and saw himself confronted with Lord Fox, who blinked at the scene in front of him somewhat confused. "Now, this is in none of the legends," he finally stated, and that got Merlin's attention, too. Arthur could see his eyes flash the briefest of moments as he gasped in shock and the heavy oak door slammed shut with force.

Arthur struggled up and off his manservant and sat up on the bed. "What are you doing here? Did no one hold you back from entering the family wing?" He didn't think Lord Fox wanted to assassinate him but the mere possibility was frightening enough; he was able to defend himself but when Morgana slept, when she managed to sleep, she did it deeply and even though she'd deny it vehemently, he was responsible for her in his father's absence. And of course, he wasn't exactly taken with a visitor having caught him in bed with his servant; no matter if he was the Crown Prince, who had the right to take whoever he pleased into his bed, or not.

"No." The man turned around and looked confused at the door, then back at the two men on the bed. Merlin had struggled up by now as well and sat pressed close, but knew to keep his hand to himself. Arthur had found that curious; Merlin was the worst servant ever and usually had no tact whatsoever either, but he seemed to know instinctively what Arthur wanted when it came to what they were doing in bed. "There was no one. I was just... I'm sorry, I know it's none of my business but are you two...?"

Insolence was obviously bred outside the kingdom's borders and the prince had to take a deep breath to keep himself from throttling the older man. "You're right, it's none of your business and you really should-"

"Let me ask you something," the foreigner continued suddenly seeming very eager. "Has it ever happened to you or someone you know; a bright white light out of nowhere and you woke up with no memory of the last few hours or even days? Clothes inside out and backwards?"

Arthur blinked at the fact that he had been interrupted as much as at the oddity of the question. "No?" Then he reconsidered. "Well, there was that one time-"

"You were dead drunk that time, I hauled your arse back to bed that night," Merlin snorted. "Why are you asking?" But the foreigner just shrugged. "You're not really married, are you? To Lady Dana." Arthur rolled his eyes and nudged his manservant into the ribs, who just gave him a sweet smile in response.

Lord Fox meanwhile had scraped one of the chairs over the floor towards the bed and sat down. "Now, that would be none of your business, would it? But since we're here with our metaphorical pants down anyway." He looked pointedly at Arthur's crotch and was so obviously trying to suppress a smug grin that the prince considered asking Gaius to poison him with something nasty that gave him the runs. "No, Scu- Lady Dana and I are not married. We work together. We're friends. Good friends. But we don't." The movement of his hand towards the two of them was more than explicit.

"You do look at her a certain way, though," Arthur murmured, mostly to spite the foreigner, but also because Morgana had remarked something about the looks that passed between those two on occasion.

"I do _not_ look at her a certain way. I'm not a fiend." He frowned and Arthur could only raise his eyebrows, he had never implied something like that at all.

Merlin had taken to frowning as well. "There is more though, isn't there? Your...clothing, that hunting device, it is all a little too odd. Camelot often has visitors from elsewhere but none ever were so queer as you." Which did hold some truth of course, but Arthur wasn't sure it was exactly smart to bring that up now, even with their breeches down. Metaphorically speaking.

Clearly surprised, Lord Fox turned his attention to Arthur. "Is he your personal lie detector?"

The prince shrugged. "He's drunk poison meant for me and was the first to suspect my then-betrothed wanted me harm. Among other things. Answer his question," he added the last in command-tone because people normally responded to it fairly well.

A long pause followed this during which the man just regarded them in silence, Arthur staring back impassively and Merlin just sitting there, looking curious. "We are from a country far in the west, that much is the truth. But this is not our time. We are from sometime else. In...the future." He bit his lip quickly. "It's not magic. At least. Not our magic. We just found ourselves in your woods and don't know how we got there. And you know the rest."

Merlin's short fingernails were digging painfully into Arthur's thigh where his hand had crept during that little tale, simply for reassurance, and he knew exactly why, too. This was their fault. Arthur himself had urged Merlin to try the 'take a look into the future' spell he had found in that book of his, not two days past. He cleared his throat. "We understand, Lord Fox and-"

"Mulder?" a knock and the door opened. "Mulder are you....oh."

"Does no one in your time and place knock and wait until they're asked in? And who's Mulder?" Arthur sighed exasperatedly and got up to set a second chair next to the one Lord Fox was sitting in. He was nothing if not well groomed and bred. "Please, my lady, sit down."

"Actually, your highness, I think your people are coming for you? It got pretty loud rather suddenly." The woman had both her eyebrows raised but looked at her alleged husband from the corner of her eye. They'd heard them, earlier, arguing loudly about something they couldn't really make out. Arthur had wondered then if maybe they weren't married after all, because he sure had never heard such arguments elsewhere.

"We'll talk later," he said and threw a last look to Merlin but meant his visitors. This couldn't possibly be good news. Arthur took off and left him to deal with the two intruders. 

Being abandoned by his lord was not exactly a pleasant feeling but Merlin mused on how often he had woken up alone already, Arthur being off training the men and shrugged. "So, I'd offer you a cup of wine but we kind of emptied the decanter over supper and I'm not sure where Arthur keeps his personal store, he seems to move it every couple of weeks." He smiled and gestured at the chair that had been put into place before.

The two foreigners looked at one another, one of those long lingering gazes, the feeling behind it not quite discernible. "They know," Lord Fox said presently and Lady Dana rolled her eyes as if she wanted to ask if the man couldn't even keep a little secret like that. "And they're not going to burn us at the stake. Are you?" He looked at Merlin then.

"Uhm. I don't think so." Because then Arthur would have to burn _him_ at the stake and Merlin just hoped that the prince enjoyed their current arrangement too much to consider that. And he had given him a free pass. And anyway, this whole mess was Arthur's fault alone because he had wanted to know if he would be a great King. So there.

"Merlin!" That was unmistakably Arthur, too, yelling from downstairs with a certain urgency, yelling Gwen's and Morgana's names right along with his. Something had happened. He ushered the two strangers out the room and told them to go back to their own before blowing out the candle burning on the table and making his way downstairs. Lady Dana and Lord Fox though didn't even consider doing what they were told and just followed him. They met Gwen and Morgana at the bottom of the stairs, who were clearly bewildered to have the two visitors coming down from Arthur's chambers but didn't say anything until they reached the throne hall.

Arthur was standing with his jaw firmly set. He only looked briefly up at them when they came in and quickly directed his eyes back at the scene in front of him. A seemingly big, extremely burly man was kneeling in front of the prince, his shoulders hunched and shaking violently and a low whimper could be heard. That big man was weeping.

As they got closer Dana Scully saw the full extent of what had happened; the man had the badly mauled body of what once must have been a woman on his knees, even if that was only made clear by what was left of her skirts, the rest of her... Her dress was ripped open and long bloody gashes were visible on her torso, opening the body cavity. Remnants of entrails still hung from the open wound, most of the internal organs seemed gone though. Where the face had once been only pale bone was left, the lower jaw was gone completely, tongue ripped out right along with it. The eyes were missing, too, and her hair was matted with blood and pieces of brain matter. The blood had coagulated, none if it dripping anymore and her limbs were showing first signs of rigor; she must have been dead a few hours already.

"She was with child," the man wailed. "They're gone. All gone! My wife!" He looked down at the corpse. "My children! Your highness!" He sobbed again and gave himself over to tears.

Mulder had gone pale and he was swallowing hard; Gwen had excused herself and rushed off. The prince was looking at each of them in turn with hard eyes but his gaze finally settled on the young servant, saying nothing.

~*~

The next morning, after a short night spent in fitful sleep and with Scully not inclined to think of Mulder on the other half of the bed, court was dismissed, whatever that was supposed to mean. Prince Arthur had simply said, "Lord Fox, Lady Dana, I give you the freedom of town and castle. For now, forays outside the walls are granted when in company of one of the household or the knights. That's all." and then gathered all of them around a large table. Aside from the prince and his manservant as well as Morgana and Gwen, a man in armour and an old man, who was introduced as Gaius the court physician, had were present.

"So I guess we're dealing with an escalating warg now?" Arthur looked at Merlin and the old man in turn, the latter nodded.

"Indeed, sire, it all looks like an attack by the warg that has been troubling us for some weeks now. I didn't think it would go as far as attacking people," Gaius added quietly and looked down, as if blaming himself.

"Excuse me," Mulder injected, earning everyone's attention, "what is a warg?"

The armoured man, a knight probably, frowned at him but didn't say anything while Merlin unrolled a map on the table and kept it from rolling up again by weighting it down with cups. "A warg or wargwulf is a wolf that will kill many of a flock or livestock but only eat very little of it. Unlike normal wolves, it is not part of a pack but hunts alone. One will emerge every couple of years, it's a common occurrence. Normally, they don't attack people though." The young man looked worried and creased his forehead. "There is some more lore on it, but most of it is nonsense; some say the beast has human eyes or that it digs up recently buried corpses."

The map seemed to be the region around Camelot, possibly the whole kingdom ruled by Arthur's father. The prince took up a handful of pebbles and placed them on various spots. "This is where we have had livestock killed." Those places were quite scattered and Scully wondered if wolves really could cover that much distance. "And here." He placed a blood red pebble. "This is where it escalated last night. The question is twofold now: will it do that again and if so, will it stay in the area or look for another hunting ground?"

"Do you know for a fact that the woman was killed by this warg?" she asked while everyone seemed to ponder these questions.

The knight blinked at her. "What else should have attacked and done that to her?"

Shrugging, she frowned at the map. "I'm sure there are more predators here than just that one wolf? I'd really like to take a look at the body." The reactions she normally received upon such a request were either consent or refusal, but never had there been either such blank stares or those full or horror and revulsion.

"And why would you do that?" Gaius was the first to ask and shook his head. "The body has been burned at dawn, along with her dead children that her husband brought here afterwards."

"Lady Dana is an avid practitioner of the sciences," Mulder said smiling. "Was there a full moon last night?"

"Mulder," she said tightly, knowing exactly what he wanted to hint at.

"No, listen to my-"

But she had enough. They were caught in the middle ages. They had no idea how they had gotten there and even less on how to get back home to their time and place. And her partner could see monsters where there was a wolf with rabies. "When have I not listened to your stories, Mulder? Even on Christmas Eve, when you lured me into a dark mansion by stealing my keys!"

"I thought we agreed that never happened." Arthur saw that the woman was shooting Lord Fox a look that he thought might let the man turn to stone but he just grinned lopsidedly at her and shrugged in not-quite apology. He had to suppress a grin of his own by reminding himself why they were here but wondered if 'Mulder' maybe was a kind of nickname and in the same instant what he might call her privately. Instead, he took to clearing his throat and had the two foreigners looking at him with quiet murmurs of apology.

"Trust me, Lady Dana, it was a wolf attack. I've seen enough livestock mauled in this characteristic way to recognise wolf-claws. We've had a few attacks on people by wolf-packs in the past, but that was on herders who stayed with their animals during the night, not attacks upon habitation. This." He pointed at the map, "It isn't normal and clearly the work of the warg. So any opinions on my earlier questions?"

Of course, there were; everyone agreed that there would be more attacks but they did not concur on if it would stay or go elsewhere. The only ones who didn't have an opinion were the two foreigners as well as Merlin, who just looked at the map quietly. The decision was up to Arthur, of course, so he told Sir Kay to put together three groups of five knights each and send them out for the day, looking for more mauled livestock or possibly wild animals who had become prey to the warg. No one had ever been able to predict what a warg would do so other than hunting it down there was not much else to be done. Tragic as it was, they couldn't start hunting it before there had not been more victims, human or animal.

"Lady Dana, would you like to come with us?" Morgana stepped close to her, Gwen in tow, smiling.

She looked at Mulder who nodded once and turned to make his way back to their room...or to explore the rest of the castle, who knew with him? "Sure. But you can drop the courtesy title, please." She followed the two women out of the throne hall and towards the living quarters. "Where are we going?" Hopefully not knitting and stitching. But for some reason, Morgana didn't strike her as the type for that.

Gwen looked over her shoulder as they climbed the stairs. "Taking at a look at the flocks outside the walls, maybe talk with some of the herders. They will know; news like this makes rounds quite quickly, but it's always better when they know they aren't forgotten."

"Uther disregards these things sometimes, and Arthur has other things on his mind right now," Morgana added and opened one side of the double door to her room.

Dana looked down at herself and sighed, "I'm not sure I'm cut out for riding in skirts."

Morgana snorted in a way that didn't sound as if a Lady of the 6th century should do it. "I was a warrior's only child, Dana, raised among men bearing arms. I haven't ridden in skirts once in my life. I guess we can find you a pair of breeches and a shirt."

~*~

"It is not a werewolf," Arthur said firmly a while later after Lord Fox had found them in Gaius' quarters and told them his werewolf stories, some of which they'd heard before, some new.

The other man pressed his lips together. "But how can you say that when you don't even know if all the attacks were centred around a certain moon-phase?" he insisted, and Gaius pried a vial of dried herbs out of his hands before he crushed it with too much pressure.

The prince rubbed his eyes, the court physician sighed and even Merlin had seemed to know earlier in the throne hall already, his usual ignorance towards these kinds of matters gone, before the old man had sent him out to fetch fresh water and wash some vials. He probably knew the stakes. "Because that would be a bigger catastrophe than this, Lord Fox. A werewolf is a rare occurrence and one not to be taken lightly. Right now, these attacks look like a warg. It's not unprecedented that they escalate and start attacking humans." He stared at the foreigner for a good minute before Lord Fox finally looked away.

"Do you know where Scully might be?" he asked instead and Arthur wondered if that was his private name for her.

"Lady Dana? She went with Morgana, they'll be back eventually." The door opened as if on cue and Merlin stepped back in, a bucket of water in each hand, followed by the three women.

Morgana smiled. "Dana has a little injury, could you take a look at it, Gaius?" Lord Fox rushed past the prince with long strides, almost too quick to blink, looking his 'wife' over rapidly, obviously worried. Merlin set down the water and started to place jars and vials upside down on a shelf.

"Scully, you okay?" It was a tone of voice that Arthur hadn't thought the man capable of and he looked back quickly to see Lady Dana roll up the sleeve of her shirt.

"It's nothing, just a scratch I got when dismounting." She looked at Arthur, then at Gaius. "I'm not quite used to your saddles, I fear. I really just need a bit of hot water and some soap." The court physician looked like he wanted to cluck his tongue and waved her over. Lady Dana sighed and went. "I was surprised to see you shoe your horses, your highness," she said, directed back at the prince.

Arthur just raised and eyebrow as they manoeuvred around each other in the room that was quite cluttered with seven people in it, and with Lord Fox not leaving her side once. "Even barbarians shoe their horses, my lady. And certainly you can see we are far removed from barbarians; the Romans walked these lands, once." The one the lady called Mulder shot him a dubious look at the last sentence but thankfully chose not to comment while Gaius inspected the scrape.

Arthur heard Mulder murmur, "I hope you're up to date with your tetanus shots, Scully," as Merlin finished with his glassware and came to stand next to him.

"What did I miss?" he asked as Arthur crossed his arms to keep from looping one of them around his manservant's shoulders, he was too aware of both Morgana and Gwen still in the room, although they had by now sailed past them and looked in on Gaius working, chatting amiably about Lady Dana's riding skills. That seemed to take Lord Fox by surprise, if his mien was any indication.

"That man is giving me a headache. And I think time travel makes one stupid." He sighed quietly.

"Would you like some willow bark tea then, your highness?" And Arthur was tempted to try the look he had seen Lady Dana use earlier in the day.

"He started in on his werewolves again. I was here to ask Gaius if he could put something in the man's wine this evening. I don't favour interruptions like last night." Merlin turned his head to briefly rest his chin on Arthur's shoulder, a small sign of affection that made the prince smile. "One of the men came in looking for me. He had found him snooping around in the armoury; wielding swords with a technique that was no technique and likely dangerous and generally messing around."

"Maybe they have no swords where and...when they come from?" Merlin interjected.

Arthur shrugged. "Then he is to stay out of our armoury, you know there's an order in there. I told him as much and he just nodded, then suddenly changed the topic. He wanted to know if he could ask me a question. It's not habitual, I said, but to go ahead. I mean he's a guest from...some place else and all."

"You're so indulging," he was interrupted again, in a sweetly-sick voice, and just answered with a dark look.

"He asked if I really wasn't blood-related to Morgana. And when I said no, she was my father's ward although we had known each other most of our lives. Then he asked if maybe I was betrothed to Gwen and as I was just staring at him...he lapsed back into werewolf talk." He let out a sudden breath of exasperation.

"Gwen. Our Gwen?" Merlin was clearly trying to suppress a laugh. "That's even worse than the thing with Sophia. I mean, Gwen at least is human and she's nice and pretty but... Sophia could play at being noble." Yes, Arthur knew what he meant. The chances of him marrying Gwen were about as big as the chances of marrying Merlin, sooner Uther would resort to wed him to Morgana.

"See why I think time travel makes one stupid?"

"Lady Dana seems to still have all her wits together. Maybe he wasn't too bright from the beginning?" Merlin shrugged.

Arthur didn't really want to think about that and what it said about the future. "I keep wondering what to do with them if they're stuck here for good." He had given it some thought and they had talked about it, in the early hours of the morning after the incident of the previous night, when neither of them had been able to find any sleep. Arthur also wondered if he should ask them about what he wanted to know most. But Arthur didn't know if he truly wanted to learn of what was to happen in his life. Certainly he had asked Merlin to try that spell but...a spell that showed the future was different than asking people who might have studied the past. In a spell for the future there was still the possibility to change it while the past was set in stone.

The grin on Merlin's face could only be described as delighted and was probably meant to distract him. "Stick a sword in his hand and add him to your guard? And I'm sure she's going to make a good teacher for when you have children." It was nice, but also slightly disconcerting, that Merlin would say that even with their current arrangement; it went to show that the other man was very much aware of their situation and that sooner or later it would, in all likelihood, have to change. Kings were known to have paramours, and more than often bastards by the dozen, but Arthur didn't want to be such a King, didn't want to live a false and bloodless marriage.

Gaius probed at Lady Dana's arm after having cleaned out the small scrape with soapy water and she was surprised at how efficient the old man was; no talk of bodily humours at all, just quick and practised movements. Only as he got out the honey jar she shook her head. "We don't need that. Or bandages. It's just a small cut."

"Certainly, but you don't want it infected, do you?" the old man asked kindly and poured a tiny trickle of the thick liquid onto her arm with Mulder holding it still.

"Come on, Scully, you don't want to risk a wound infection here, do you? No antibiotics but what mother nature will supply and honey is as close as it comes," he murmured close to her ear, only loud enough for her and Gaius to hear but not for the two young women who still hovered close.

"Treating wounds with honey has been blamed for deaths already, Mulder. It's like with your werewolf talk. These people are superstitious already and superstition breeds fear. I don't think that should be promoted any more by us who know better." She looked up at the court physician. "No offence...Gaius, was it?"

"None taken, my lady," he said and bound her arm with bandage-like piece of cloth that looked freshly washed and bleached. For the middle ages, these people kept surprisingly clean. It was nothing like in most accounts one read. Certainly, the prince and Morgana were nobility and were bound to be somewhat more tidy than the lower classes but even Merlin (who slept with Arthur, according to Mulder so there could be a reason), Gaius and Gwen, all mere servants, were clean and she had not gotten anywhere yet where it smelled like bodies unwashed for several weeks or years. The barracks might be another matter but those were fighting men, not much different from modern soldiers in the field.

Mulder looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time, even though he had been there when they first came in. "I don't know, Scully, there seems to be much less superstition than I would have thought..." And he was right, too. People cursed a lot and no one ever crossed themselves. The general absence of religion was a curious point; she had seen no chapel and no ministers or priests, another large difference between legends and, she admitted somewhat reluctantly, reality.

The small injury of her guest seen too, Morgana turned back to the prince. "The herders would like to take their flock in during nights. I said I would bring it up with you." She told him all of this nonplussed and he didn't even bat an eye at her, just shrugged.

"They can do what they want, I have a feeling it won't make much of a difference though." He held up a hand as he saw her wanting to protest. "I realise that this is about the feeling of safety, Morgana, but I'm thinking that maybe it won't get worse when they learn that it is a false sense of security when their flocks get attacked despite them taking them in. It might lead to panic and I really don't think we should hazard those consequences."

They watched the exchange go on some more, with Gaius supplying advice from his long experience with court matters, war and outside threats and Mulder put both hands on her shoulders and leaned in close from behind to murmur quietly so no one else would hear. "Don't you think it's interesting that they talk about this warg in terms and quality as we would talk about a serial killer when consulting with local law enforcement?" She nodded. It was one thing that had come to her attention that morning already, when the prince had spoken in terms of escalation. They were different, these people, from anything she would have expected.


	5. Life of Kings

Mulder and Scully had spent a good part of the remaining day familiarizing themselves with the castle as to not get lost; night was falling when they were walking the battlements, the twilight creeping up on them and suddenly plunging everything in darkness. The night in medieval Britain was riven through by light though; there were guard fires and torches set into mounts in the walls for people to see by all through the night while the surrounding lands were truly and utterly dark, the bit of starlight that filtered down from the moonless sky not enough for the human eye to see far by.

"No one asked," Mulder said after a long while walking in the dark. They were now climbing down from the battlements and back into the courtyard, where Mulder directed them back into the castle, slow, seemingly aimless.

"What do you mean?"

He looked at her again and shrugged. "They all know we're from the future, right? At least Arthur knows, Merlin and I guess Morgana and Gwen, too. There don't seem to be many secrets there between them. But none of them asked about what will happen..whether they're still known in our time. What their future holds. Arthur didn't even want to know if he will be a good King. It is... Don't you find it strange?" 

It wasn't that Scully hadn't noticed. She just didn't find it that significant.

"They obviously know that we know of them, your initial reaction was rather telling." She searched his eyes. "And I don't find it too odd. After all, not everyone wants to know their future, and Arthur strikes me as a very confident young man. Maybe he knows he will be a good King. Maybe be strongly believes it." She paused. " _Will_ he be a good King?" 

Her understanding of the legendary King Arthur was limited; there was the popular legend, the one where Arthur slept eternally in Avalon until the time he was needed again, but that didn't make any definite claims to the quality of the man's kinghood.

"We're in the middle ages, everyone wants to know what the future holds. And that depends on which source material you consult. There are stories in which Arthur isn't exactly the brightest cookie in the jar, if you understand my meaning." The tone was quiet, hushed enough that no one would pick up on their conversation; it was probably not a good idea to announce the failings of the Crown Prince's intelligence too loudly.

Something occurred to her, which suddenly made sense if she put it in context with the events of the last few days. "Maybe it is a common misconception about medieval times. Our sources are fragments, we don't have a complete history of the world, Mulder. And none whatsoever about Camelot, aside from legends and exaggerations." She took the subsequent shrug to mean that he didn't know either and possibly also that they just wouldn't talk to anyone about what they knew. Little as that was. Her partner came to a sudden standstill and knocked at a door, and only then she noticed that they had walked all the way to the living quarters. If she wasn't mistaken, this was Prince Arthur's door. "Mulder, what-" Elaborate and loud cursing could be heard through the oak door and it took about a minute until the prince opened, dressed in a loose white tunic, unlaced breeches and flushed with color that didn't seem to be at all feverish.

An irritated look landed on Mulder and Arthur appeared very much like he wanted to yell at the man when he spotted her. She shrugged helplessly and Arthur exhaled once slowly through his mouth, then said in a quiet tone, slow and clear, "Lord Fox or Mulder or whatever they call you where you come from. I would appreciate it, very much, if you didn't come and hail on me when we are following a natural imperative. Thank you." A false smile was followed by and curt, "My lady" and the door banged back shut. Scully had wondered for a split second if the prince was speaking in the majestic plural until she had seen a dark head moving through the slit that was visible behind him. Mulder just looked wistful.

"'Natural imperative', do I even want to know what that's a euphemism for?"

She wanted to roll her eyes and took his arm to steer him clear of the living quarters of the nobles. "No, Mulder. Come on, we should get some rest, too." However much that would be with their current sleeping arrangements. Mulder had a tendency to sprawl.

~*~

The next morning they went into hiding. Well, Lord Fox had to hide and Arthur had obviously decided to spare himself the seething looks from Morgana and join him. But really, the foreigner should have known better than to tell a noble lady, and that was what the King's ward was no matter how she dressed sometimes, to come and make him a sandwich, whatever that was. She had been close to castrating the man with the knife they used for butter when breaking their fast, the only thing that saved his balls had been Arthur's snickering. Merlin was convinced that the prince should have known better, too, but wouldn't start arguing that point. No use.

Lady Dana had expressed an interest at looking at Gaius' stores of herbs and liquids and the like, so they had decided to spend the day in the physician's chambers. Now Arthur was half-sitting on one of the big tables next to him, their shoulders touching whenever one of them moved, both of them watching the display in front of their eyes. Gaius looked like he needed a second set of hands, for the red-haired woman was looking at his crude handwriting and asking things and when she heard either nodded or her eyes went big with horror. There was a whole collection of jars and vials already that she had dismissed as poisonous, even though Gaius had explained in detail what he needed them for. In the meantime, he always had to keep an eye on Lord Fox, Mulder, as it were and somehow that name suited him so much better than Fox despite its meaninglessness, who didn't seem to be able to keep from touching everything.

Presently, the man picked up a vial and unstoppered it to dip in the tip of his little finger. Merlin was up and had his hand closed around the other's wrist to keep him from sticking that into his mouth, as he'd done with other things previously. "That's anti-venom. If you're not sick with the original poison, you better keep that out of your system," he said earnestly and took the vial out of Lord Fox' other hand and put it back on the shelf.

"Anti-venom?" Lady Dana echoed and came over. "What for?"

"Snake poison," Gaius answered. "We had an incident here about a year ago that involved an extremely poisonous breed of snakes. Not pretty, what they did to their victims." He shook his head and Merlin did remember that time, Valiant's shield. That damn dog had completely wreaked his room back then.

She raised her eyebrows. "Impressive." She had been less impressed by Morgana's sleeping potion that Gaius had prepared for Gwen to pick up later.

"What's her trouble?" Arthur had whispered to him and Merlin had shrugged, explaining that what Morgana took for sleeping was extremely potent and would likely put anyone else out for hours without stirring once. For her, it just put a slight damper on her nightmares. When Lady Dana had heard the symptoms she had consented quickly that yes, that was probably good then.

"If you should choose to stay here longer, my lady, maybe you'd like to give me a hand in here? Merlin is all but useless as an assistant, even more so since his highness seems to keep him occupied quite a bit more than before." A benevolent but at the same time cautionary look landed on them both and Merlin was hard pressed not to duck his head behind Arthur's back.

Lady Dana seemed hesitant. "Thank you, Gaius but... I don't know if I can."

"You do seem capable enough, if I may say so." Gaius had one eyebrow raised and reached for another set of parchments for her to read. Merlin heard Arthur murmur that they had to get them back to their own time somehow. They had talked about that. Without much avail, due to the fact that there was no spell in the book that would undo seeing into the future and Merlin wasn't sure if he _could_ undo it without a spell to guide him. One more thing they needed to get to work on. That and the warg. And keeping the court together and functional, as long as Uther was on the mainland.

"Thank you, Gaius, but-"

"What she means," Lord Fox interrupted her, "is that... You know we're from...another time?" The court physician nodded. "There is a problem that arises with time travel, we call it the grandfather paradox. What if you travelled back in time and murdered your grandfather before he could meet your grandmother? One of your parents would never be born and consequently you would not be born, then you couldn't go back in time and murder him. Hence, the name." He shrugged.

Arthur frowned. "Certainly, you don't think anyone here could be your grandfather, Lady Dana?"

Smiling, she turned around to them and shook her head. "No, certainly not. But there is some truth to what Mulder said. Logic tells us that we cannot interfere in the flow of time, we are not to intervene in any events because that might alter the reality we live in, which is your future but our present. Like if I showed Gaius how to take out an appendix when it is infected because it is a deadly affliction, but it is not known in your time, I interfere with the flow of time, maybe helping someone stay alive for whom it is crucial that he is dead to shape my own present into the way I know it and thereby negating my own reality. It would cause problems."

"Appendix?" Arthur whispered into his ear but Merlin could only shrug. Something anatomical, possibly. He would ask Gaius later.

Gaius seemed thoughtful for a long minute. "I was always under the impression that time is like a great river, that by correcting its course, history can not be altered. What happened happened and it cannot be negated by anything that is done in the here and now or even going back."

"There," she said and was obviously as surprised as Merlin was by his teacher's suddenly excursion into philosophical matters. "There are those who say something similar to that. Time travel in our reality is not practically possible, not yet, it is just a theory. Which is why we...well, we're not sure how we got here or how we can leave again. However, what you say... There are several theories as to this. For one, that when you travel back in time you don't do it in your own timeline. Like." She pulled a piece of parchment close to her and was handed a quill by Gaius, then she drew a straight line of the paper and a second one branching from that about halfway from the first. "Mulder and me, we are on this time line." She carefully pointed at the straight line below the branching point, careful not smudge it. "But we can't go backward on this timeline because it would present a paradox, under certain circumstances." She pointed at the straight line above the branching point and drew an X over that one. "So we now have to be on a timeline that runs or ran parallel to our own because in that time and reality, we can alter things and it is of no consequence for our own." This was emphasised by pointing at the branchline she had drawn.

"Although multidimensionality suggests infinite outcomes in an infinite number of universes, each universe can produce only one outcome," Lord Fox added and received an icy glare from Lady Dana in response. Why exactly eluded Merlin, it seemed to be no more obscure than anything else they had said.

When they drew back and she had given the quill back to Gaius she was pensive. "There are more theories, of course. The Novikov self-consistency principle comes to mind." At their blank stares (and an exaggerated nod from Lord Fox), she elaborated. "It basically says that we were meant to go back in time and do what we did here so therefore can cause no paradoxes to start with. But that would mean that all our actions, thoughts, words are a matter of destiny, that we have no free will and no choice in the matter. I'm not sure I like that idea."

Merlin grimaced. Destiny. He had come to hate that word over the past year. The dragon had taunted him with it, told him what his destiny was, that he was to be at Arthur's side. So much stuff that didn't make any sense now that he looked at it. And now the dragon was dead and he had to find his own way, blind. He wished he had never heard about his destiny, because whatever that entailed, it made him feel sick. And he was glad to hear someone else dismiss it so clearly.

"Of course there also are theories similar to that of the river," Lord Fox spoke up now. "For one, that whatever is meant to happen does happen in the end, if I try to interfere with it or not. In other words, I might kill my grandfather but maybe it turned out my grandmother cuckold him and he wasn't really my grandfather. Or when I prevent someone from dying one way, they will die another. It says that time takes care of itself, one way or other."

Lady Dana looked at him. "Who says that?"

"The Doctor Who role-playing game." He grinned back and Merlin could see her roll her eyes.

"So in other words," Arthur said with a sigh, "you don't know nothing and it can be one way or the other or none of them at all?" Both foreigners nodded. "I think I'm glad I live in simpler times than yours seem to be."

A knock at the door prevented any further answers and Sir Kay poked his head into the room. "Your highness? The Lady Morgana is...she asked for someone to train with but...she's not being very friendly with the men, if you understand my meaning?" The prince sighed once more and pushed away from the table once more.

~*~

Dana came into her chambers, no knocking and closed the door decidedly behind her before turning around to Morgana. "My lady, what do you do when Arthur is really getting on your nerves?"

She raised her eyebrows and regarded their guest with a certain amusement. "I used to kick him in the crown jewels." She smiled to indicate the joke when the other woman looked somewhat appalled. "Truthfully, I only used to throw things at him. These days, I ignore him. Which works all the better because Arthur isn't used to be being ignored. Is this about Lord Fox?" A nod and an exasperated sigh was her answer. "You can hide out with me, if you like, men don't come in here unless they are invited."

These foreigners could be even more interesting to watch than she had expected.


	6. Sword and Sorcery?

Scully wondered if time passed in the same manner back home as it did in Camelot while she walked back to the stables from visiting Morgana who was abed with an early summer cold. Also, what the Bureau was making out of their disappearance. Certainly, they had been on their way to a case anyway, but they had practically dropped off the face of the earth; no communication, no expenses were being registered. They had gone well and truly AWOL. They might be fired. She found she didn't care as much as she once might have; she'd been close to quitting once already, her work on the X-Files having showed here how little opportunity there was for them to truly change anything at all.

"I keep wondering how we are to phrase this in our report. _Are_ we writing a report about this?" she had asked Mulder a couple of days ago but at both questions her partner had only shrugged and winced at his sore thighs and backside. Prince Arthur had told him if he wanted to get outside the castle walls at any given point during their stay, he would have to be able to ride.

"A horse," the prince had added for emphasize, because Mulder must have interrupted the pair of prince and servant once more in the previous days. She didn't want to know the details, just argued with her partner about how far he could take his strolling and butting in. Everyone must have heard them, for there were significant smirks during breakfast; their communal breakfast didn't seem a normal occurrence between these people, it was unsettled and like they were used to solitude for small meals. Maybe it was the absence of the King that had made them sit down together in the mornings, these days pre-court matters were discussed and whatever else was up for that day. She had the impression that they as two foreigners were included more to keep an eye on them than out of courtesy.

Clearly, Mulder had underestimated riding considerably, though. He had expressed extreme surprise at her experience that second day, not counting on the fact that military brats like her and her brothers often had skill sets beyond those of normal children. Charlie had been able to disassemble and assemble a car engine at age eight. "Didn't you know Mulder that all girls around the age of nine want to ride a horse all the time? It's like a rite of passage. Some of the bases my dad was stationed at had horses and we kids were given free lessons. It's like riding a bike, you never forget it," she had explained and watched as he approached one of the quite large animals for the first time.

Later, after he had just fallen down like a sack of grain three times when the mare shied, and after Arthur had clapped the animal on the rump once and it had trotted around the corral a few times, Mulder, looking quite comical, had come up to her and was too beat or afraid of more muscle pain to even sit down. "My God, Scully. That felt like the time I tried to keep Ronny Strickland from emerging from his coffin again!" She wasn't at all sure about what she was supposed to think of that analogy.

A page had brought another stack of clean laundry earlier and they were very much set with clothes, at least those they would need on a day to day basis. She wasn't sure, however, how much she liked that fact, considering it looked like they were settling in, which was something she really wanted to avoid, for her own sake as well as for those who called the kingdom around Camelot their home. On the other hand, they needed clothes. Even if she had to pull Mulder away from the walls every now and then because he kept scraping himself against them, woollen tunics obviously too scratchy for cotton-spoiled skin. He observed her for a while and then mused, "Hey, what do you think they do to make the clothes smell so fantastic?"

She stared at him, not quite believing what he was saying despite knowing full well what the facts were in his life. "They dry them on a clothesline outside, Mulder, not in a tumble dryer with hot air blowing around it."

Later, Arthur caught up with her with damp hair and in full armour, obviously coming back from a bout with his men. No matter how much he claimed he wasn't King yet, the men were his, body and soul. "Your highness."

"Arthur, please," he said smiling. "How's Morgana doing?"

"Better today, the fever has broken but I'd like her to stay in bed for another few days. I'm not familiar with your usual treatments here but as long as it's not the plague or pneumonia, I suppose traditional remedies are all the same." Grimacing, at what she didn't know, the prince made pace to the stables were Merlin was watching Mulder go, walk, around the corral on an even more placid animal than previously while giving helpful pointers like "Careful now, don't fall off! Again..."

"Draft horse," Arthur whispered and she had to suppress a snicker before he went back to his normal speaking volume. "Merlin was a terrible rider when he first came here but he learned." Said manservant turned around as he heard them approach and handed a water bladder to the golden haired prince; in that respect he was very much the image of the legends. "So I have hope yet, for your... He said you work together..."

"My partner. Thank you Arthur, I do hope so. Of course, it would be preferable to get home and fast." The look that went back and forth between the two men could only be called conspiratorial and she raised an eyebrow at that, wondering if maybe they knew more than they let on. But which means did a pair of medieval boys have that could cause two modern FBI agents to travel back in time, even if they were the legendary Arthur and Merlin?

~*~

"Are you sure we shouldn't tell them?" Merlin asked as he pulled his tunic over his head, goosebumps rising on his skin. It was past mid-May already but a cold front was passing over them, making the farmers complain because their grain suffered; at least it was only cold and not wet, too, else they would have seen a late flare-up of the wasting and winter fever.

Arthur frowned while taking the last swallow from his cup, rinsed his mouth and spit the wine out of the window. He wasn't supposed to do that but the prince very rarely did what he was supposed to, these days and anyway, and Merlin wasn't his wetnurse so he just crawled between the sheets after getting rid of the pants, too. "Rather not. While it does concern them both, they know that magic is actually banned. I don't know what would happen if they found out...especially since Lord Fox is...well...quite boisterous about some things."

Merlin snorted; he had never thought that there was a diplomat hidden away in Arthur but that had surely been expressed in a mild manner. The man grinned and sat down on the mattress, bending forward and nipped at Merlin's throat, not hard enough to leave a mark, even though everyone knew or suspected they were shagging there was no need to confirm any rumours, but enough that it stung. Strangely, that little sting was much more arousing than watching Arthur prance around all day in his breeches (although depending on the tightness of the pair, that alone was headturning, regularly confirmed by all ladies at court staring after him); Merlin could feel himself responding in quite an obvious manner, only hidden by the sheets. And Arthur hadn't even taken off any of his clothes.

"One could think those two were sent to prevent us to ever have sex," he murmured against Merlin's throat as he proceeded to nip and kiss his way around to the other side, flat tongue resting minutely against his windpipe.

Merlin exhaled with a shudder that had nothing to do with the slight chill in the air and stretched his head back to give his prince more access. "They messed up then," he said, not knowing if he meant the two foreigners or whoever might have allegedly sent them but it didn't matter either way, "I remember having plenty of sex before their arrival."

Something rumbled in Arthur's chest as he drew the blanket back and proceeded to make his way down Merlin's torso, occasionally stopping to give special attention to a sensitive spot. "True, despite your stupidity." A satisfied look was thrown up at Merlin when he let out a gasp, a wolfish grin; he had always known that Arthur was a bully but never expected that behaviour to extend to the bed, too, despite suspicions to the contrary. Also, the man was terrible, terrible tease. One experimental lick went from Merlin's balls up his already hard cock and then Arthur drew back and slowly, methodically made his way back up.

"Are you." He swallowed to get his voice under control again, make it sound less rough around the edges, "are you quite sure we should... What if..." He had started to hate Lord Fox whenever he came around at _precisely_ the wrong time.

"Oh I'm sure," Arthur grinned and rasped his teeth over his lover's collarbone, "I asked Lady Dana to please keep our other guest busy. She's a woman. I'm sure she can think of something."

Merlin chuckled and wound both arms around the prince's neck to tug him down when he came into reach. "Why didn't you say so from the start?"

Later, uninterrupted for once, Arthur buried his face between Merlin's shoulder blades for a moment before drawing him closer. Their skin was cooled and the other man, never quite warm, had started shivering against him but stopped only moments later, wriggling only closer.

"We managed to have sex." The comment sounded almost astonished and a little amused and a lot satisfied. There had been nothing amusing about being interrupted all the time but now that they had actually gotten somewhere instead of having been left hanging... "Lady Dana must be very persuasive."

"It could be the fact that I promised him to give him a sword lesson," Arthur sighed and was entirely too warm and comfortable to get up and extinguish the candles. He also could feel the laughter bubble up in Merlin, first in his chest and then it came out and he had to grin, too, and it was only when the man lay wheezing and turned around in his arms that he asked him to turn off the light. Blue eyes flashed gold once and the room went dark, not a word uttered; it was too fascinating each and every time to let an opportunity to watch it slip by. "I expect him to be abysmal, he said into the dark. "Kay will say I owe him a favour for doing that to him."

"I'm worried for his eyes," Merlin mused and Arthur could feel the smile against his neck. "Such pretty hazel eyes." Arthur frowned and delivered another sharp nip to his lover's throat, this one doing more than just stinging but he knew by feel that the small mark would be covered up by the kerchief. "I like blue better." A kiss landed on his throat with one more chuckle.

~*~

The knight that had come to their room introduced himself as Sir Kay and helped Mulder into the chainmail he had brought slung over his shoulder. The process took a while and was laborious and at the same time almost comical; she could hardly believe that men really had gone to all the trouble in these times, just to go to war. But then, there probably wasn't so much difference between chainmail and Kevlar vests, both were supposed to protect the wearer from damage inflicted by the weapons of their time.

The outfit didn't suit Mulder. He was in no way skinny but he wasn't the same kind of muscular that Arthur and his knights seemed to be, their physique was subtly but definitely different. The mailshirt hung down from his shoulders and pulled her partner forward until Sir Kay slung a belt around his hips that seemed to direct some of the weight of the steel to a lower barycenter.

The mail coif was pulled through a hole in a plate configuration that then was put over the head too, protecting shoulders, neck and right arm. "You still need gauntlets," Sir Kay said in his deep baritone. "We'll ask Prince Arthur when you're downstairs. But you're all set now."

"Sword?" Mulder asked and rotated his shoulders in the unfamiliar armour.

Kay looked at him. "Downstairs. No one but nobility and the guards wear weapons in the castle, it's customary. My lady." He bowed to her just the slightest if bits and then led them down and out, towards the practise grounds were the Crown Prince was presently climbing over the fence.

"Lord Fox, you do not look too comfortable, if I may say so." Arthur looked the man up and down once and pulled his gauntlets off. "You will need these, see if they fit you. Kay's never would have, he has paws like a bear." First lesson, normally carried out from children with wooden swords, would be undertaken with blunted tips. The foreigner would never know the difference and Arthur definitely felt better with it. He had never promised sharp tips.

"I don't know how you people move around properly in this. And climb fences even!" Mulder said as he pulled the protective gear over his fingers and looked for a proper entrance into the arena, meanwhile Kay had gone off to find his squire, don his own armour and collect the swords.

"Thank you for doing this." Lady Dana leaned against the fence next to Arthur and looked up.

Throwing her a look, he noticed that she was worried. "For letting him handle a sword? Are you sure?"

"The armour, my lord, thank you for giving him some protection. I know you...aren't very pleased with him." She had a nice smile, albeit a little sad or maybe resigned, like she was used to her partner going off and being stupid. Merlin appeared on her other side, not wanting to miss what would happen there in a few moments.

Arthur grinned and took the liberty to pat her shoulder. "I have to admit, if it was entirely up to me I would have let him go out there today unprotected and be done with it. But I like _you_ , my lady, and you seem quite fond of him. So I'm keeping him alive for your sake." And well, he had gotten some nice, uninterrupted sex and a full night's sleep that had put him in a somewhat mellow mood where the annoying foreign man was concerned.

"He's my friend," she sighed, "my very, very good friend. And my partner. And I really don't know how I should explain to our superiors that I lost Mulder in _Camelot_ of all places." He exchanged a look with Merlin, frowned. So the spell probably had done its work, just not how they had expected it to.

"You know something of it?" Merlin asked quietly and the woman threw him a hesitant glance. "You don't need to answer if you don't want to."

"I don't want to deliver you with a self-fulfilling prophecy," she answered after a long while in silence, in which they had watched Sir Kay come back, give Lord Fox a sword with the blade pointed down and lecture him on the proper usage of the weapon.

So that was probably a yes. Arthur knew that Merlin was looking at him for a long time but didn't dare return the glance.

Mulder groaned. "I hurt in places I didn't even know I had places!" he complained loudly and she rolled her eyes at him. It was his own fault, too, he had begged the prince for so many days that he had probably just been fed up with it and commanded one of his men to do the lesson. On the other hand, she did have some suspicions regarding the prince's request to keep Mulder in the room for at least one night, maybe there had been some kind of deal between the two men, too. "And they want to repeat it tomorrow!"

He sniffed the mug that Merlin had brought by earlier before handing it to Mulder, from the smell of it valerian and hops, good for sleeping but her partner would curse the lack of bathrooms later. "I might have slipped today," she said with a resigned sigh. It wasn't like she'd overthrown history but...

"What, did you tell him he'll even reign in our time?" Mulder smirked and propped himself up on one elbow to look at her properly. Pursing her lips, she considered just breaking off the conversation and let the man suffer alone but his smirk turned into a genuine smile. "So what did you do? Tell him about Camlann?"

"No." When he had heard her recount of the earlier talk she'd had with the other two men he shrugged, winced.

"It's not unreasonable that we know of Camelot and of them, or at least of Arthur. So as long as you didn't say anything about Camlann or Mount Badon..." He frowned. "That would put us much sooner than I thought." At her raised eyebrows he elaborated. "Historians put the battle of Mount Badon around 500 AD, maybe a little sooner, maybe a little later but definitely around the twenty years of the turn of the century. Arthur, King Arthur, is credited with the victory that halted the advance of the Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain and it's probably the greatest achievement of his reign and what he's most famous for, politically speaking, not taking into account the triangle between- Say, have you seen or heard of Lancelot? He seems to not be present here."

"Well, Arthur is not yet king. Mount Badon?" she prompted, because she could see he had lost the thread of his narrative in the jigsaw that were the personal relations at court.

He nodded. "Right. No one has geographically placed Mount Badon, ever, although there are enough theories. And since Arthur isn't king yet, as you pointed out, and there has been no talk about the Anglo-Saxon invasion...granted, that started in the east and if the legends are any indication we're in Wales here...I suppose we're some time in the second half of the fifth century. How old do you think Arthur is?"

"Early twenties? Older than Merlin, a little." She shrugged. They could probably ask, she had an appointment with Gaius at the time Mulder would undergo his second sword lesson. "Why?"

"I always was under the impression that Arthur had been a young King, the chronicles seem to indicate that much, so I'm surprised that his father still seems to be alive."

"Don't they also say Morgana is his sister, Gwen the Queen and Merlin an old man by the time Arthur comes into power? And that magic is a common occurrence?" History was prone to be written and rewritten and rewritten again, it was not surprising that not everything the legends, for that was what the history of King Arthur had become, didn't accurately portray the facts, legends hardly ever did. Scully thought maybe they had found the kernel of truth to this one, though, and even if it wasn't quite upon them to judge, she was somewhat glad that the victor of that battle would be someone who cared about what happened to those around him. Mulder's only answer was another wince when he tried to move and finally let himself fall on the bed, trying not to move one more muscle.

~*~

"They're awfully close," Merlin observed the next day after Arthur was finished with the men and they were standing next to each other leaning against the fence. Lord Fox was being drilled by Sir Kay again, although one could hardly call that drilling, the poor man hardly managed to lift his sword this morning. Arthur had said last night that the foreigner was doing even worse than Merlin had during his first lesson and that...was somewhat alarming. The prince nodded at the statement, though. "You sure they're not sleeping with each other?"

There had been lots of arguing again between the two foreigners, they'd been hearing it some days, although their voices had never been loud enough to catch the content of their arguments, it was clear what they were doing. On the other hand though, they always seemed to appear together, they talked in low tones and sometimes even finished sentences for one another. It was highly confusing.

A shake of head was his answers. "Rather. Whatever might be between them in a sexual context is...not lived, experienced. They sure are close, I'll give you that, there's a lot of trust between them. Maybe it's working together that brought them to this point."

"Did they ever say what that work was?" It hadn't really occurred to him so far but...

Arthur shrugged and readjusted his mail a little with the motion. "Lady Dana told Morgana they were working for something like an army but it was less about war than about keeping peace and order. Like the warg, if something like that happened in their world, they would be called. Or if someone was killed." They were silent for a while afterwards, watching Lord Fox as he tried to follow Kay's commands as best as he could, watching Lady Dana engaged into avid discussion with Gaius. It seemed she had decided to take the opportunity to further her knowledge about sword wounds and their ways of treatment, other than sewing and cauterizing.

Finally, when Lord Fox started to talk to Sir Kay, using gestures of his arm that Merlin didn't know how to interpret he sighed. "That man puzzles me."

"How's that?"

"He's a narcissistic, overzealous, self-righteous egomaniac and yet he does care about those around him, those close to him, a great deal." He threw the prince a long look. "He kind of reminds me of you."

Arthur literally sputtered for a second and then cuffed him on the arm. "Look out, you." Merlin grinned. Arthur would be a good King one day, he was sure, but there was no denying that the man was a royal prat.

"I don't know how he got the idea to pick up a sword for the first time at his age," Gaius sighed, shaking his head. Scully couldn't say how old he was, but he sure had surpassed the average age of the time period and still seemed quite agile. The King seemed to think quite highly of him as well, else he probably wouldn't enjoy the privileges of a freeman while still retaining his position.

"Mulder is...one of a kind," she said with a smiled and saw her partner drop down into the dust on one knee, Sir Kay having delivered a blow to his sword. "Gaius, can I ask you something?"

"Certainly. That's why you dragged me out here, didn't you?" He raised an eyebrow and nodded towards the two 'combatants'. "To learn how to care for such a wound if it becomes necessary during your stay?"

"Yes, certainly. But... I meant to ask something else. Neither of you was in any way surprised when Mulder mentioned that it could be a werewolf, everyone just said it wasn't a werewolf but a warg. Why is that?" No one avoided ladders or black cats, the amount of superstition in Camelot didn't match the historical image of the middle ages in the least; it baffled her.

"Because it is a warg, my lady." Gaius frowned and shook his head at her, obviously not understanding why she asked in the first place.

"Yes, certainly, I do believe that it is. But you weren't surprised at the mention of a werewolf. They didn't say 'such a thing does not exist', they said 'it isn't one'. Do you believe in the existence of werewolves?"

Both the man's eyebrows shot up. "But of course we do."

"Despite the fact that they don't exist? Like all the other creatures?"

"So you do not believe in them?" A smile appeared on the lined face. Scully hesitated, aware that a couple of years ago she would have flat out denied it. "Follow me." He brusquely turned around and walked towards the castle.

"In my work with Mulder I have seen a lot of things that I previously never would have thought possible. But mythical creatures? Werewolves, unicorns," she tried to remember the few scraps of Arthurian lore that she retained from her childhood, "giants and faeries? It seems too unreal."

The old man threw an amused look towards her. "They're all real, my lady." They entered the court physician's quarters and he stepped up to a shelf, pulling a book out. "You should ask Arthur or Merlin to tell you about the unicorn from a while ago...we had quite some trouble caused by that. And I think the faeries will not look at Camelot with a benevolent eye, considering Merlin snatched Arthur's soul away from under their greedy fingers. Here." The book had opened and the script wasn't in Gaius' hand, it was much neater and easier to read. "Arthur also battled a Gryphon, without too much success though, he had...help, in the end," he said and opened one particular page, "and the Afanc. Also the Questing Beast, even though it almost killed him."

"What is this book?" Her eyes scanned page by page quickly, just getting the gist of each creature. "And you've truly seen all of these?"

"The Bestiary. And yes, though if I haven't, Merlin and Arthur have. They're reliable witnesses to this, my lady."

She looked up, mind going in circles. She could never show this book to Mulder, he would never let her live it down. Strike that, he'd never want to leave again. "But you're sure it's a warg?"

Gaius was silent for a moment. "We haven't dismissed the theory of it being a werewolf. We just don't entertain the idea, Lady Dana."


	7. Slicing and Dicing

Thus, a fortnight had passed in relative peace and quiet.

~*~

Dana had accompanied Morgana to her room after they had returned only shortly before dinner from a ride into the forests. Arthur probably thought he was the only one who took to such excursions regularly, at the same time wondering where Morgana and Gwen sometimes disappeared to.

"I really don't know why Arthur isn't just giving you separate rooms. It's not like he doesn't know you're not married," Morgana said as she watched Dana switch her riding clothes for a dress and fold the breeches and shirt up.

Scully turned around and gave her a surprised look but smiled and it was just a little smug. "I think Arthur likes me keeping an eye on Mulder so he doesn't go wandering as much at night. After he burst in on-" Her smile froze and she looked up from the clothes again. "You know that..."

"Arthur and Merlin? They're not exactly acting inconspicuously, Dana. The whole court must know by now, I'm surprised Uther never picked up on it." She shook her head. The King had been very specific of what he thought of his son's sexual escapades in the past and she couldn't imagine his stance had changed any. Of course, a male manservant couldn't get pregnant and cause complications in the line of succession but that didn't mean that it was looked upon with a benevolent eye. "Still, you don't even have a proper place to change. I can't imagine it doesn't bother you when Lord Fox..."

"Mulder knows better than to leer," Dana said grinning and looked around. "I meant to ask you... You don't stitch? Knit?"

Morgana grimaced. "I can stitch and knit but it's not my favourite past time. I prefer a sword to a needle. Why do you ask, is it popular in your time?"

Gwen entered without knocking, bringing a new pitcher of water and dinner would be ready in ten minutes. "It comes and goes." Dana shrugged. "No, I was wondering because that's what noble women did in this time. And running their household. Or at least that is the popular opinion, the idea of sword-wielding noble ladies is a matter of fiction."

Before Morgana could give her opinion of what she, Duke Gorlois' daughter, thought of women cooped up for needlework and delegating servants, Gwen spoke up. "Can you really tell us nothing? Not even a little bit? I'm so curious what everyone ends up as in legends!" And if Morgana was honest with herself, so was she. How often did one get the chance to talk with someone who presumably knew everything that was to come? Her own brief glimpses of the future were never far in advance and only concerned single events, never the whole life of somebody else.

But the other woman just shook her head. "I'm sorry, I really don't know what problems it could cause, you knowing anything about what your futures hold. And I'm not exactly an expert for the Legend, that is more up Mulder's alley. But if it is any consolation, I think the legends aren't very accurate where women are concerned."

"What do you mean?" Morgana smoothed down wrinkles in her own dress and made for the door, they might as well go down to the hall already, the men would follow soon after, ravenous as always. In the past she had wondered where Arthur left all that food but since Uther had been gone and Gwen and Merlin also sat at table with them, it was Arthur's manservant who astonished her. He ate at least as much as the prince did but he was only half of Arthur, if that.

A little frown appeared on the other woman's face as she tried to sort out her thoughts. She finally spoke up as they were walking down the steep steps single file. "Most medieval stories are romances of some sort. And most women in these medieval stories, not just in Arthurian lore but pretty much all stories that come to mind, are either wilting flowers in need of a man, a shining white knight in splendid armour. Or, if not that, they're scheming, cunning...witches who only care for themselves, their own advantage. And I see none of these archetypes here in Camelot."

She looked back and exchanged a look with Gwen, seeing the same disbelief there that she felt herself. "Is that what the future sees in us?"

She knew Dana shrugged again, her voice sounded as if she didn't know what to say either. "Things here are not very much as I would have expected them. Different but...not in a bad way."

"Is the future any better?" Gwen asked quietly.

They arrived at the foot of the stairs and were already in the hall before Dana answered with a grin, "Life is better when it's a little more surreal. The question is what is more surreal, your present or mine?" She pondered for a moment. "Our time is certainly the more convenient one, we have central heating, we don't need to hunt our own food, less people die of curable diseases. On the other hand, there are dangers you can't even begin to imagine."

"Lady Dana, if I give you a piece of rope, can you tie him to the bedpost?" Arthur burst into the room before anyone could respond to Dana's last remark.

The woman just looked at him with an unreadable expression, then her gaze shifted to Lord Fox who came in behind Arthur. "Mulder, do you still have your handcuffs?"

~*~

Court was held nine days in ten; on the tenth day Arthur usually used the time freed up by him not having to sit in the throne hall dismissing or granting notions for additional training with his men. All of the knights received attention in turn on normal days, with the amount of young men applying for knighthood though, not everyone could be seen to every day. On extended training days, every man received attention, even if it was just by an encouraging word or a correction of stance.

Scully felt as if she was watching a movie, leaning against the fence and observing what went on in the practise arena, only the popcorn was missing; although the strawberries that Mulder was handing over every now and then were an adequate substitute. They were on the small side but very tasty and aromatic, breakfast leftovers.

Merlin had come around a while ago and she had been seeing him sneaking glances at the prince once a while. Puppy love, she mused, or a convenient outlet for both men. It was none of her business, of course, but since Arthur was the future King, he would have to think about an heir rather sooner than later. Not much space for self-fulfilment in such a life. She wanted to say something to Mulder to that regard when the noise of horse-hooves coming nearer at a fast pace sounded in the distance, coming ever closer.

~*~

Arthur spat out the dust from the grounds they had kicked up and that had accumulated in his mouth, feeling grit crunching between his teeth, before sending the men off and going over to the fence where a small crowd had gathered already. "What is it?" he asked the rider that had hailed him away from practise with an urgency in his voice that didn't bode well at all.

"We found a body, your highness. It's being brought in as we speak. It looks...very bad, sire." Cursing, he sheathed his sword and climbed over the fence to take off towards the drawbridge and the central courtyard. A horse came in, dragging a travois behind it on which an uncovered body lay. He recognised the stature. It was the man whose family had been killed by the warg and he didn't look any better.

Lady Dana frowned and pushed him aside a little to squeeze between him and her partner to kneel next to the travois. In the meantime, Mulder kept the people who had gathered from coming forward and into her field of vision. "Your highness, I'd like to take a closer look at the body."

"Whatever for?" he pulled off one gauntlet and rubbed his face. The man, or what had been the man once, was mutilated in the worst way and he really didn't want to look at it any more. He was sick of these attacks happening, sick of losing people and flock and not being able to do anything about it. A warg wasn't easily found. Wolves knew how to hide by day and there was practically no visual in the forests at night.

She looked up at him. "Clues. We might be able to deduce something." Shrugging, she got up again and Arthur just told the man leading the horse to take the body to Gaius' quarters. Probably as good a place as any and at least Gaius would be able to follow what Lady Dana would be doing. The two foreigners vanished and it took Arthur a while to get everyone calm enough again for them to return to what they should be doing. Morgana caught his eye from the castle entrance and he shook his head, he'd have to tell her later.

When he finally entered Gaius' quarters a while later, Merlin stood in the middle of the room with his arms crossed and a dubious look on his face while Lord Fox just sat on a chair, looking almost bored, as if he saw his partner doing things like this every day. Meanwhile, Lady Dana looked at the mauled corpse, quietly talking with Gaius. "I wouldn't know. Maybe his highness?" They half turned, offering Arthur a better view at what was left of the man and he really wished they hadn't. He had seen a lot of blood and gore in battle, he had also seen people attacked by wild animals but that didn't mean he liked it.

"What's with me?"

"I need certain instruments to perform the post mortem properly," Lady Dana said with an air about her that could only be described as cool and composed. She proceeded to name instruments, as she called them and described their function. He could think of a place where they would likely find such instruments, although it disturbed him a little that she wanted to use them on a corpse. These foreigners they had summoned were somewhat odd indeed.

He led them down to the dungeons, Mulder and Lady Dana, as well as Merlin, who was clearly uncomfortable and rightly so; under other circumstances he would have been shut up in one of them, and very likely in the lowermost one in the back, the one where they were headed, and would never have seen daylight again but just before his execution. Arthur shuddered, not quite wanting to think about what would happen if his father ever found out about his son's manservant commanding magic. The floor was slightly sloped, quite intentionally, for while the first cell was still almost at ground level and flooded by daylight, subsequent cells grew darker and dimmer until they came to the last cell, not surrounded by grill-work but closed up entirely by stone, only a heavy oak door allowed entrance and light. None of the cells was currently occupied, and thankfully not this last one.

Gritting his teeth a little he held the torch he had brought a little closer and unlocked the door, secured with one of the best locks the castle-artisans had ever made, and deadbolts but the sledges were empty and the large wooden bolts stood to the side. The hinges were well oiled, there was no sound when the door swung open and suddenly the musty smell of stale sweat, crusted blood, earth and fear surrounded them. Mulder was already green in the face, Merlin even paler than before and only Lady Dana seemed to take it in stride; she was the only one who followed him into the room and towards the back wall where he held the torch for her, explaining in a quiet voice which of the implements on hooks and hangers he thought would suit her purposes. It wouldn't do to mention the names of the heavy iron instruments so he kept it to the bare minimum. Also, by not wasting his breath he didn't have to take in as much of the foul air.

Arthur could hear her mutter, could hear the disbelief and, yes, scorn in her voice as she carefully selected a few of the devices and handed them to him. He hated this place. It was the first time he was here more or less deliberately, each and every time before, his father had forced him, dragged him down here when he was young, threatened him as he got older. His father made it a point only to torture sorcerers; the mildest form of it simply starvation from food and water but most ended up in this last cell.

There were many courts on the isles, and on the mainland too, which tortured every kind of criminal, from the thief to the murderer, in every kind of way imaginable, depending on their crime and in how blood thirsty the people at court were. It was only King Uther who was known to exclusively torture sorcerers. Oh, criminals died in Camelot, too. And they often died quite painfully, but only the magic-wielders were subjected to days of torture at a time, their life prolonged by their future executioner for as long as it suited the King's whim. Their death was a relief more often than the true punishment.

When they emerged back into the sunlight of the day his skin was covered in gooseflesh. No one spoke, they were just a grim procession heading for Gaius' quarters, but he could see how every one of them was affected. Merlin looked like a ghost. Mulder looked like he would be sick any moment now, he had not reacted like that to the corpse earlier. Lady Dana just looked grim.

He wondered if in the world, the time, where the two foreigners came from knew torture. They obviously were familiar with the concept, else they would have reacted differently to the assortment of devices in the lower cell, but was it practised, wherever the land far in the west was? Was it still practised on the isles, on the mainland? He didn't quite dare ask. But Mulder might offer his opinions anyway, once he could draw a clear breath without shuddering, as he always did.

"Here come your magic fingers, Mulder," Lady Dana said with determination and her partner gave her a shadow of his usual mocking grin. The experience just now clearly had affected all of them.

"The victim is male, white, mid- to late thirties, presumably healthy at the time of his death. Approximately 190 centimeters long, weight not determinable at the time of the autopsy. Defensive wounds on his arms and hands. The body-cavity is ripped open by what seem to have been claws. Matching marks can still be seen on the thorax, the pelvis, the thighs. The throat is ripped open, the face off, presumably by the same set of claws. The flesh, looks ashen, no livor mortis and the edges of the wounds have greyed, indicating the wounds were inflicted when the victim was still alive to allow for massive blood loss." She looked at Mulder, who nodded. He was making notes of her oral report on a notepad he had retrieved from the coat that still hung over a chair in their room, the old-fashioned feather quill scratching away at the paper, her partner proving surprisingly capable at using it instead of a ballpoint pen. If they ever got home he would have to transcribe it, even after almost six years she still couldn't read his personal shorthand entirely.

She sighed and reached for the two fork-like devices she had pressed into Arthur's hands earlier. They had fork-extensions on both ends, were not quite as long as her lower arm and had a strap looped through two eyes in the middle. Did she want to know what there were usually utilized for? Probably not. Pulling the wound edges aside, she exposed more of the abdominal cavity and peeked inside. Her hands were greased in oil and some sort of animal fat she didn't want to think about, which didn't do anything to further her grasp on the remaining organs but would hopefully keep blood from entering through minimal cuts in her hands, keeping her from being infected with any disease the man might have had. It wasn't adequate protection but it was better than nothing. Gaius had looked dubiously at her when he had requested it, thankfully not commenting on it further though.

"Liver, spleen and kidneys are missing. Small intestine only partly retained in the abdomen, it looks...chewed off at about half its length. Of the large intestine, only the sigmoid colon remains." She reached for the large knife, one of the things that had not come from the torture cell and widened the opening on the thorax to the classical Y-incision. "Rips seem intact." Exchanging the knife for something that looked a lot like a nut cracker with sharpened edges she went to work on the ribs but couldn't crack them. "Arthur?"

"Oh no you don't-" The prince didn't look thrilled and she could understand that. But aside from Mulder, he was probably the only one with enough strength to cut through a grown man's ribcage with the instruments at hand and she needed her partner to take notes with unbloody hands. Post mortems were not usually conducted in this day and age, it seemed.

"I wouldn't ask if I could do it myself," she pointed out and the Crown Prince came over and grabbed a pair of what he called pinchers, the only instrument he had actually named. "Cut through the ribs at the outer edges of the ribcage. On both sides of the sternum...that's the large bone in the middle." The young man made quick work of the corpse's thorax and stepped aside again, laying down the pinchers gingerly. "Heart and lungs are intact and seem to have been healthy." She reached for the nutcracker again and snapped the bronchial arms clear through to lift out one lung after the after to cut into them carefully. "Lungs are filled with a small amount of blood, possibly inhaled between the slashing of the jugular and the time of death." Putting the lungs back in, and not even bothering with the heart, for it was clearly not a coronary that had killed the man, she wanted to replace the ribs when her eyes caught at something.

A pail of water had been put close by her and she rinsed the bones in it until they were reasonably clean of blood and shreds of meat, then regreased her hands and took them over to where Mulder sat close to the window to look at them in better light. "What is it, Scully?" Her partner looked up from his notes and stared at the set of bones in her hands.

"These scrapes," she pointed at one rib, "and this nick here," she pointed at another. That's almost-," she bit her lip and motioned the prince over. "What would you say this is?"

A frown creased Arthur's brow as he examined the set of bones she was holding closer. "It's almost like it was gnawed on." She nodded, her suspicions confirmed.

"Teeth marks. And not canine, either." She pursed her lips when Mulder looked at her, already knowing what she would say.

"What then?" Merlin asked quietly, he hadn't regained any colour at all since they had started here.

"Human," she stated and went back to the corpse to replace the ribs.

~*~

Arthur was never rough in bed. No matter how much of a bully he could be in every-day life, he was rather carefree when it came to sex, as long as both of them had fun at it, there was no need for an upper hand. Right in that moment though, Merlin almost wish that the prince retained more of his prattishness in bed because he just wanted the man _in_ and forget about the corpse. And even more about that last cell in the dungeons, the one that was dark and damp and was the incarnation of his nightmares.

So he very deliberately put down the small jar of cooking oil he'd stolen from the kitchen on Arthur's table and looked at the prince, who was inspecting blood spatters on his tunic, probably from when he had snapped the ribcage open during the examination that afternoon. At the small thump he looked up though and his gaze went from the container to Merlin's eyes, raising one brow carefully.

"You wanting to chance Mulder blundering in?" But he laid the tunic away and didn't bother to put it back on, either. The day's business was over and done with anyway, he had retired for the night. Aside from the cooking oil there was also a decanter of wine on the table and Arthur sidled over to pour himself a cup.

Merlin looked back steadily. "You need a deadbolt on your door." If it was any use he would wedge a chair against the door but it opened to the outside and the chair would sooner clatter to the floor than block the latch.

Arthur laughed and shook his head. "Not practical when you're the Crown Prince. What if an assassin came through the window and I had to get out of the room quickly?" He walked over and offered the refilled cup to Merlin, who accepted and took a small sip.

"I could protect you." He could see Arthur choke on the last swallow of wine he had taken and patted his back firmly until the coughing fit stopped. His lover looked at him flushed and cleared his throat.

"Merlin, don't take this the wrong way but... I don't think you're cut out as a guardsman for the likes of me." An arm landed around his shoulders and he was led to the bed, feeling the warmth Arthur was radiating clearly through his own clothes. "So I take it you're chancing Mulder?"

He let the insult about his powers go, mainly because the other man obviously still hadn't understood everything but also because he really didn't want to get into a discussion about them _now_. So he just turned his head and murmured, "Right now I wouldn't care if he was already lying in there," before sinking his teeth into the joint of Arthur's upper arm and shoulder, not enough to seriously hurt but certainly enough to make him feel it.

The sudden tension in Arthur body was his only warning before the man bent down and levered him over one shoulder just to drop his burden heavily on the bed a moment later, appearing above Merlin an instant later, one hand pushing on his shoulder to keep him put. "What was that thought?" the grin on the prince's face was almost feral and yes, that was more like what Merlin had imagined.

"I told you I like blue better. Less clothes, Arthur." Maybe he just needed a few hints. He would have taken the initiative but Arthur had twenty to thirty pounds on him and was considerably stronger and there was no way he could have done anything. But Arthur wasn't inclined to follow hints and clues, instead he produced the vial of cooking oil that Merlin hadn't seen him snatch up and just kept on grinning.

"So you'd take Mulder in bed with you, too, huh?" He took everything back, Arthur was a bully in bed, too, after all. The prince set the vial down slowly again, next to the bed, all the while keeping him down with just enough strength that it didn't hurt him and would leave no bruises while looking pensive.

Merlin squirmed against the hold. "I was just saying that right now I wouldn't care if he interrupted us in the middle, because you know I have this itch and I'd really like you to scratch it."

"Oh, you have an _itch_! Now if that's the case, I guess it's somewhere you can't reach yourself? Where? Here?" A hand made its way beneath his tunic and fingernails were dragged over his skin just below his shoulder blades.

"Uh. Lower."

The hand wandered over his pants, which were getting uncomfortable by now, to his hip and he could feel the nails still, more pressure this time. "Here?"

"Lower. And with less clothes would be good."

"Demanding, aren't you? Oh well." Arthur sat back, taking his weight away. "Off with them then." Merlin could see that it wasn't just for his benefit but also for Arthur's because the prince's breeches had to be uncomfortable by now, too, if the bulge was any indication. They grinned at each other and quickly got rid of pants and linens.

"Who did you nab the oil from?" Arthur murmured into Merlin's back when he applied the substance. There had been one memorable time, close to the beginning, when Arthur himself had snatched a vial of body-oil from Morgana's dresser. It sure had smelled nice but the stuff had burned like fire and Merlin had made the executive decision to take care of that part of their arrangement himself from then on.

"Kitchens," he whispered and arched against Arthur his fingers were replaced by something thicker.

"Brave," there was a breathless grin in that voice, maybe even a compliment, because getting stuff from the kitchen wasn't easy, the staff was very much on their toes, even and especially around the Crown Prince and his manservant.

Merlin swallowed. "Was kind of in a hurry." And then there wasn't talking for a while. Arthur managed to find another spot where Merlin was ticklish and while Arthur spent a few minutes in glee afterwards, Merlin sulked while he cleaned himself up. Eventually though he threw another damp cloth at his lover's face, who caught it easily and just kept grinning while wiping the oil off his body.

Walking around the room and extinguishing the candles, without magic for once, Merlin eyed the other man. "Can I tell you something?"

Arthur tilted his head, a small frown creasing his forehead and a lopsided smile on his face. "Sure."

"Those...things." He sat down on the bed and drew his legs up. The prince nodded, yes he knew, the devices Lady Dana had used for her examination. "They had me...worried."

"Scared, you mean." Merlin averted his eyes. Yes, scared. But he couldn't very well tell that to Arthur, of all people, now could he? "Merlin. Look at me." Despite the slight command in the man's voice it took a long moment until Merlin complied. "My father won't learn of you." Merlin knew when Arthur was sincere and he knew a promise when he heard one. And keeping everyone from finding out had been his objective for more than a year now and it had worked but, what if...

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and shook his head. "Arthur, I didn't expect you to tell him, but-"

"You're not going to end up in that cell. You're not dying out there, bound to a stake with a fire beneath you or kneeling in front of a block." Merlin's eyes opened suddenly and his gaze snapped to his lover's and the man just sat there, calm as anything, and shrugged. "I won't allow it."

Taking a shaky breath, he eventually found his own version of a smile. There was an understanding between them, silent, forever unspoken. After a while he magically extinguished the last candle as well and they settled for sleeping. "So. Human teeth marks. Does that mean werewolf after all?"

"Werewolves have no human teeth, Merlin," Arthur chided and fit his knees behind his. "It's a warg. The marks are some freak coincidence, nothing to lose sleep over." Merlin knew his friend made his voice sound more convinced than he actually was. Lady Dana's findings had him clearly worried and there had been a quiet talk with Gaius, he knew, about what was in the books about wargs and werewolves. Merlin had to work on a way to send Lord Fox and Lady Dana back home.


	8. Nice Trip to the Countryside

Mulder had spent the two days since the impromptu autopsy charting the moon phases backwards and setting them in relation to the known attacks, hoping to find a pattern. Arthur had told him already that there was none, but her partner hadn't listened and done a lot of work for naught. Since Scully had found the teeth marks on the ribs he had been even more convinced of his werewolf theory, although he seemed prepared to bring more convincing arguments than before. The moon phases had not been on his side though; he also had received a few stares that he was trying to correlate the two at all, because werewolves didn't care about the moon, according to those at the castle.

The lore on mythical creatures seemed to be different in this time and place than it was in the 20th century. A cultural anthropologist would have a field day.

Dana Scully was just growing impatient with the situation. She also wondered at the almost guilty gazes that passed between Arthur and Merlin every time someone brought the dilemma up.

Musings in that direction during court had been cut short though when a messenger stepped in and knelt in front of the prince before getting up again and offering a scroll to him. The royal features grew taut and angry and he handed the piece of parchment to Morgana wordlessly, who quickly skimmed the contents, just to put it down aghast. "Every single piece of stock?"

The messenger shook his head. "I wouldn't know, my lady, I was just told to take it here quickly. The message was entrusted to me two days ago."

Arthur nodded and dismissed the man, dismissing court shortly after as well. Merlin had gone off in a hurry after a whispered exchange and the prince rubbed his eyes. "We had an attack in a village a little more than a day's ride from here. Every piece of livestock was killed, no human victims though. I need to go and survey the damage."

Mulder started forward and she grabbed for his wrist. "Mulder, you're _not_ going to abandon me here like you did in Florida," she hissed, catching Gwen's attention with this, who looked at them quizzically. At least these people didn't know yet that there was a whole continent in the west, that way there was nothing suspicious about place-names.

"How long do you figure you'll be gone?" Morgana's voice drifted over to them.

"What, you're not going to demand to go with me?" the prince sighed and got up to work kinks out of his back.

The young woman smiled and raised an eyebrow at him. "Someone here has to make sure Camelot still has one stone on the other when Uther returns and you're clearly in over your head." She received a dark look from her quasi-brother for that but she didn't pay attention and instead locked gazes with Scully. "But maybe you want to take our guests, I'm sure they'd like to see some more of the kingdom." Arthur looked like he wanted to protest but she quickly got up and stepped up to him, talking quietly into his ear and he just nodded in what looked to be a resigned gesture.

"Of course."

"What did you say to him?" Scully asked as she walked next to Morgana a few minutes later, on her way to assemble a travel wardrobe as they would obviously accompany Arthur on his survey of the damage, as he called it.

The younger woman didn't answer for a long moment and only turned to her when they had reached Morgana's chambers and Gwen had closed the doors behind them. "You're guests here in Camelot but you've come at a...peculiar time. Uther has been gone for a few months now and will be gone for the better part of a year. Now, while Arthur is not only Heir Apparent but also the Crown Prince, people follow his command as they would follow the King's. But when Arthur leaves, it falls to me to keep order at court and make decisions when they are needed. I'm unable to keep an as tight command of everything as the men do, it's a matter of gender." She smiled tightly and Scully could understand her, Morgana might be one of the first women in a patriarchal world to make a difference; in reality as well as in legend. "When the cat's away the mice will play, if you understand what I want to say. You're safer on the road with Arthur, even with a warg on the loose.

"Now." She opened a chest. "Let's see what you'll need. Arthur said to plan for up to ten days' outing."

She found Mulder later as he watched the preparations going on, frantic ones, even though they would only leave early the next morning. It seemed these people were not only early risers but also liked to be prepared in advance; maybe the lack of supermarkets in long and cold winters made one adopt such a mindset. The tale of the grasshopper and the ant came to mind.

"Clothes all laid out?" he looked over.

"Being altered as we speak. I feel kind of bad that I'm robbing Morgana of her clothes." Leaning against the fence, she watched six of the knights ready their own packs. Half a dozen knights, Arthur, Merlin and the two of them. Ten people on the road in an enormous country where a mad wolf was wreaking havoc among humans and animals alike. Great prospects. Her partner shrugged. "There was more in that message that Arthur didn't tell during court." She said it quietly, as to not alert anyone else who might pass by; knowing she shouldn't say this to Mulder of all people but she didn't know what to do with the information.

"What's that?" He inched a little closer, feeling her need for secrecy.

"The message also said that someone saw the creature and it was tall as a man." He stared at her for a moment and in that minute, Arthur came into view, grinning at a joke. The sun was glinting off his hair and his armour and it almost made her wish she had a camera with her. There was an air around him that had nothing to do with royalty, his standing in society, but that was simply emanating from his person. He fit the role, of course, was every bit the man of legend but at the same time, he was real. "No one can physically change into an animal, Mulder."

"I recall you saying something similar before and I also remember how that case turned out," he smirked. "These are the Dark Ages, Scully, anything's possible."

Her look wandered from her partner's face back to the prince, who had mounted a horse by now and was slowly walking it around a small perimeter, ducked on its neck to feel along the shoulder, grinning about something one of the packing men had said. "I don't know Mulder. I don't think our hosts consider them so dark." She could _hear_ his answering smile.

They were silent for a long moment, meanwhile Arthur dismounted and nodded at the man who took the reins from him, now coming towards them. "Do you know where we're going?"

"Morgana said the village lies to the northeast, more than a day's ride."

Merlin settled next to her. "It's close to the border, just a few hours from my home village," he added and yawned. "You should get a good night's sleep, we're leaving before dawn. Turn in early."

"Do you think a werewolf is more likely now?" Mulder asked and she dropped her head, groaning.

"Mulder..."

"Scully, there have been stories about werewolves since before the Common Era and-"

"And they have been explained, too, just like vampirism. George III, porphyria? Rabies is another explanation, Down's Syndrome has been credited as well. But man cannot change into animal." She saw Merlin's mouth drop open in response but Arthur, who had heard their last exchange quieted him with a look. Better this way.

But Mulder just dismissed those explanations and went to frowning.

~*~

Morgana stood on one of the balconies overlooking the courtyard, gazing at the proceedings below; carts were being loaded, horses chosen and corralled, supplies readied even in the failing light to be ready for Arthur taking his leave on the morrow. The castle would be quieter without him since he'd also take Merlin and the two foreigners with him. And all of that was probably for the best, too, considering Lord Fox was driving a lot of people to distraction.

"Morgana," the prince's voice sounded behind her and when she didn't turn around he came up and leaned next to her against the balustrade. "Morgana."

"Yes, Arthur. I'll be fine, go get your gear ready." She still didn't look at him because what was the point? They each knew their station and their tasks now this situation had come to pass. He had to go, that was his duty as Uther's proxy and she, as the King's ward, had to stay and act the part. Everyone in Camelot had known her for most of her life and knew she enjoyed Uther's trust and protection which gave her some authority, furthered by the fact that all knights knew she could hold her own.

Arthur sighed and she knew he was rolling his eyes at her but didn't say anything until they heard "Scully! Scully!" from the courtyard below and both saw Lord Fox running after Dana, who was walking with sure strides towards the entrance doors, trying to get her attention, but obviously to no avail. As if she didn't her him at all.

It was only then that Morgana looked up at her surrogate brother when he made a sound she couldn't interpret. "What is going _on_ down there? He looks like a puppy trying to garner attention from its master."

Morgana had to suppress a snort, couldn't do the same with a broad smile though. "Dana is taking a piece of advice to heart."

"If he gets any more annoying, I'll blame it on you." He grinned at her though, then sobered. "What do you think of them?"

Studying Arthur a bit closer in the dusk revealed dark rings under his eyes. The situation surrounding these attacks was draining him, even though he never would admit it. Carrying the responsibility for everything on his own, plus the appearance of Dana and Lord Fox... She could see it. But she wouldn't comment on it. "I think Dana could kick your arse from here to Ealdor if she wanted to." Arthur raised one eyebrow at her. "She's very pleasant company. She can take care of herself. Camelot would be lucky to have her stay."

"I'm not sure I can convince her of that. And whatever would I do with Mulder?"

"Camelot could also use a new court jester," she smiled and and this time it was Arthur who had to hold onto himself not to laugh so loud as to alarm the whole court.

~*~

"Here, take these," Merlin yawned and handed the two foreigners bags of their own and for their saddle packs. Arthur held both their horses, the animals stamping impatiently, by the reins as he watched the proceedings

Mulder sniffed at it. "Smells a little like bread?"

Merlin nodded. "Rye. And wolfsbane and misteltoe. Wards off wargs. And Werewolves." He shot a dark look at the foreigner and yawned again. There was no ward against wargs but all three plants were supposed to keep werewolves at bay and Arthur had figured, in agreement with Gaius, that they could need every bit of protection they could get if they really were dealing with one. However, that didn't mean they had to give Mulder the satisfaction which he would interpret as having been proven right.

"I never knew about this," the man mused and Merlin shrugged.

"Now you do."

It was an hour before dawn and none of them had had much sleep, preparations taking precedence over rest. They would be leaving in two parties, first a handful of knight as well as their guests, Arthur himself and Merlin. Second a baggage train under guard meant for the inhabitants of the raided village; a couple of head of cattle and sheep, a crop full of chickens. If the situation was really as bad as the message indicated, he would send a second train upon returning to Camelot.

They left soon after for a full day of riding. He hoped the two foreigners had gotten used to the saddle because else the next day would be very uncomfortable for them. "You're riding with me at the van," he had said. "Merlin you, too."

The puzzled stares had been amusing for a while until they had a bit of distance from the knights who were riding in two columns behind them. "Officially, you're high guests of the court and taking you along means I have to give you special treatment," Arthur explained while keeping his horse in a light trot. "Which also means Merlin as my manservant must be present to serve your and my every whim." He knew a smirk played on his face but he couldn't help it, the indignant huff from said manservant was just too predictable. "It's better than us bringing up the rear anyway, I would be taken for not brave enough to face danger head on and anything that goes through my men would catch you anyway, this way you have a chance to flee."

They made a late camp for a few hours that evening, not long enough to pitch up the tents, it was more to rest the animals than themselves. Arthur had drawn first watch, the two foreigners still too wound up to find sleep so they were sitting around the fire, silent. Merlin had rolled up close to the circle of light and Arthur had thrown his own cloak over him after some grumbling, they would have to wake him up later or else he himself would be too cold to sleep. For now though he just fed twigs to the fire. Mulder had gotten out one of the small bags and was sniffing it again.

Their faces were illuminated by the firelight and despite Arthur having been on countless campaigns in the last few years, mainly against raiding parties from beyond the water but also from the east, as the Saxons were growing in numbers and tried to expand into other territories, this one felt not quite real. Here he was sitting with two people from a future so far removed he couldn't even imagine it, who held all answers to every question he might possibly think of. Yet they were questions he didn't dare ask. "You must know everything, don't you? About me. What I'll do, what kind of King I'll be, how I will die." A quick glance at his guests showed him that they were looking at each other uncomfortably, as if they had known he'd say it but didn't have a proper reply. He snorted and added grimly, "Don't worry, I'm not going to ask."

"To put your mind at ease," Mulder's voice was quiet and almost soothing, "I don't think the legends are too accurate. At least in the fine print." Arthur raised one eyebrow but didn't feel like admitting that he didn't catch the allusion.

Reaching for a bigger branch to put it onto the fire, he frowned. "When you told us about the problems of you being here. The Notti-"

"Novikov self-consistency principle," Lady Dana corrected gently.

Arthur nodded. "You said you didn't fancy the idea of ultimate fate. Is that how people generally view it in your time?"

Headshakes were his answer. "I think there are as many opinions about fate and destiny as there are people alive," Mulder mused. "Maybe more, when you take all that has been written by people now dead."

"How do you see it, then?" Arthur himself didn't quite know what he was getting at but it seemed a thread of conversation worth pursuing and certainly beat the umpteenth time of trying to convince the older man that they weren't facing a werewolf. Especially since he himself wasn't so sure about that anymore.

He got a shrug and a long pause. "Fate would have to be a very strong force to always encompass everything animate and inanimate, to set things just right for certain events to happen. It would deny the existence of free will, would negate every fork in the road there is and there are just too many of them. I'm a big fan of free will." A smile followed.

Lady Dana made a 'what he said' gesture but reconsidered a second later. "I suppose there are certain choices we face, depending on what kind of people we are. Good people are certainly capable of doing bad things but they're more likely to chose a moderate or benign way rather than go down the path of evil and destruction."

"So what do you make of someone like me, then? It is my destiny to succeed my father, to spend my life on the kingdom. How is that not preordination? That and that there will always be failure somewhere along the way." This wasn't quite the way he had imagined this discussion to go but whatever. Hopefully, these people would be gone soon after they all returned to Camelot, Merlin had made noises that he was pursuing an idea.

Lady Dana looked at him for a while. "That kind of destiny certainly is one you can hardly escape but what you do once you are King is still up to you, Arthur. You can wage wars or keep peace, you can choose between furthering your own interests and that of your people, to a certain degree. The kind of king you will be depends solely on you and not on whatever will be preserved in writing more than a millennium from now."

"What did you mean by failing?" Mulder interrupted before he had a chance to think on the lady's words.

Arthur sighed and tried to catch a glimpse of Merlin from the corner of his eye without the two others noticing, then rubbed a hand over his face. "If you want to protect someone, you don't do something that will put them in deadly peril, Mulder. It's a rule but it's not one I can abide to at all times; which is ironic, because in my position I am to protect people and yet there will always be those who will be in danger because of me."

The foreigners looked at each other and Lady Dana nodded understanding, while Mulder looked pensive. "Why _didn't_ you ask, your highness?" he eventually asked. "To someone like you, knowing what is to come certainly must be a relief, so you might still change it, even if the details of a legend might not match reality."

A frown plastered itself on Arthur's face as he looked at the man and shook his head lightly. "Receiving an answer from you, who know of my life, my death, possibly about those of my confidants and friends..." He nodded at Merlin. "That would certainly determine not only my destiny but also my fate, cement every move I and everyone else makes in time and block those forks in the road. Then where would be the sense in making an effort to be a good King?"

There was no talk for a long time afterwards and when Arthur's hour was over and he had been spelled off he simply woke Merlin to retrieve his cloak and give the man a blanket. But rolled up in the familiar carmine and gold of Camelot, it took a while before sleep found him, the possibility of knowing everything echoed in him, he wouldn't give in to temptation though. A man needed to make his own mistakes and not make them because he knew he would make them.

The air started to smell like like a slaughterhouse several leagues away from the village already and Scully thought she only didn't lose her breakfast because she had faced the most gruesome states a body could decay to in her job already. The carcasses had been cleared away by the villagers but the large stains of blood had not yet been washed away and the smell of decaying meat hung heavily in the air.

When they finally did reach the village proper there was indeed no livestock to be seen. A few dogs slunk around but they had probably been kept inside with their owners at the time the attack took place, she also saw a few pairs of feline eyes, nothing to make dinner of, either; and these specimens were probably more than half-wild one way or other. The villagers obviously weren't horse-breeders, what traffic they had was accomplished solely on foot, taxes were collected by the King's men.

The people amazed her though. They expressed their joy and appreciation at their sovereign (even though Arthur wasn't king, there didn't seem to be much distinction there) looking after them personally, showed him the places where blood had been washed away manually as to get rid of some of the smell. Relief washed through them when the prince told them there was a supply train on the way for them, with live animals to start their stocks again. But there was none of the deep desperation that she had expected, as there would have been in modern times over losing sustenance almost completely, and she wondered if maybe these people knew better how to handle tragedy or were simply too used to it. It might have been treason to pose that question, though.

The prince spent most of the day having Merlin run after him to make a list of what else might be needed and listened reluctantly to the villagers. There was much to tell but while Arthur did seem to be a ruler who cared for his subjects, he obviously felt out of place. Mulder meanwhile had been quiet all morning, the previous day's riding had taken its toll on him, but grew more interested when talk tuned towards the creature they had seen.

"It was large as a man," the young man said and held his hand over his head, "taller than he is." That was said while pointing a hand at Mulder, which put the creature at over six feet and that was taller than most men were in this day at age. "I couldn't see the face but with the damage he did he must have had some sharp animal teeth. There was fur all over, shimmering in black and silver, I've seen that in wolves before. And his legs were strange, they were too long for the body and the thighs too muscled and the knees on backwards."

"Backwards?" the prince echoed and the young man nodded.

"But there were normal hands, I saw them."

"How did it walk?" Mulder interjected and received puzzled stares from all present parties. "On the hind legs or on all fours?"

"No." A headshake followed. "I don't know. I ran as fast as I could. I would not be alive if I hadn't." Her partner nodded his understanding and Arthur reassured the man that he had done the right thing and thanked him before sending him on his way.

When the prince finally returned to them, Mulder was already avidly talking and trying to convince her that the description fit a werewolf perfectly. "Even though usually werewolves look like wolves, only bigger, and don't have hands, but maybe a local variation."

"Mulder, that young man is merely projecting his nightmares upon a shadow he saw. There was only a crescent moon that night." When her partner raised his eyebrows at her she smiled. "I had a look at your charts, I knew you would be all over this. You can't extrapolate from one account of a scared boy who feared for his life a complete theory regarding _werewolves_. Especially when there is a completely rational explanation for what's been happening."

But as so often, Mulder ignored her and turned to the prince. "Is everyone in the village accounted for? No one missing?"

It was Merlin who answered. "If it had been someone from the village, he would have been recognised. This is a close-knit community, everyone knows the other. Even when changed, they would have been seen for who they were."

Arthur ignored the repeated werewolf mention and frowned. "What makes me wonder is that this is the attack closest to the border yet."

"Maybe we should inquire with King Cendred if he had similar problems." Merlin looked around the little huts in the slowly failing light of the afternoon. They would spend the night camped outside the village and leave again the next day.

"Do you think he would give an honest answer? I would not, should such an inquiry arrive. It's a delicate matter, after all but-"

Mulder spoke up, "Wait, there are more kingdoms here?"

Arthur frowned at him and shook his head ever so lightly. "Of course there are."

"But I always thought-" Scully kicked him against the shin and shook her head much more energetically at him. They weren't supposed to tell the prince anything that legend said and Mulder was well on the way of possibly ruining their chances of returning to the world they knew. "Never mind." The prince continued to stare at his guest for another few seconds, probably trying to figure out if the man was a retard or just had problems reining in his impulses but turned back to his servant.

"Would your mother know?" Merlin had mentioned that his home village was only a few hours' ride from here but hadn't said that border crossing was necessary to get to his home. There also had been no mention of his mother.

The younger man looked dubious. "I don't think my mother would much like it if you, me and a column of knights thundered into Ealdor."

"Don't forget these two," the prince pointed at them with his thump. "Would she, though?"

"Much as anyone here knows about the attacks that have been happening." Merlin shrugged.

Arthur just nodded. "So we'll take a little detour in our way back to Camelot. I'll leave the men here an extra day to help build more secure pens and put in poles. You me and these two _visitors_ will go and pay a little visit to your mother." And walked walked away to hail one of his men.

Merlin sighed. "I'm sure she'll be overjoyed, your highness." It sounded resigned but at the same time just a little smug. Arthur obviously knew Merlin's mother and Scully wondered what the story there might be. Her own mother had taken to Mulder instantly when they had met, she was one of the very few people who could get away with calling him 'Fox', after all.

~*~

His mother practically ran out of the cottage and up to him just as he jumped off his horse. "Merlin! Did something happen? You didn't send word, did you?" Her gaze fell on Arthur and the two foreigners then. "Oh. Arthur, it is nice to see you again," she smiled at the prince, who had dismounted and gathered Merlin's horse as well, warm and motherly. Hunith had liked Arthur from the first time they had met, after all.

"No, no. Everything is fine, we were just...in the area. These are Lady Dana and Lord Fox, they're visiting Camelot." he nodded at the two strangers who had gotten off their horses and were standing by. His mother meanwhile slapped him on the arm, scowling.

"Merlin, grown boys should not scare their mothers half to death." She turned to the other three. "Welcome, all of you. Is there a reason why you're here? Not that I don't appreciate you bringing my son to me, your highness, but you certainly did not do it out of the goodness of your heart." Merlin wondered how only his mother managed to to sound joyful and chiding at the same time.

His friend nodded guiltily and cleared his throat. "There is a matter we'd like to address indeed. But maybe when we're not the focus of attention?" He looked around at the gathered villagers and smiled at them, nodding at a few he obviously recognised from last time. When Will had died.

Merlin willed away his thoughts from that and they led the animals to the side and bound them to a fence so they wouldn't wander. Arthur meanwhile handed a pack to Hunith, who accepted it with a smile. They had each taken rations for ten days, they'd be back in Camelot the day after tomorrow at the latest, they could spare food. "She's young," Lord Fox murmured next to him, to which Merlin chose not to comment but he did see, and with satisfaction, the elbow that was jabbed hard into the man's ribs.

There was no real chance to talk with anyone until that evening. Most of the villagers had left their day's chores for a few minutes at a time to come to them and talk, they had a lot of respect for Arthur still, because he was a foreign prince who had come to their aid when even their own King would not. "Will would have hated all the fuss everyone is making," Merlin mused to himself.

"Who's Will?" Lady Dana asked next to him and he almost jumped. He hadn't heard her come closer. "Your mother is incredibly nice," she added smiling and her eyes found Arthur as he was nodding at something he was currently told.

"You didn't leave her alone with Lord Fox, did you?" Merlin thought he might have to borrow Arthur's sword elsewise. Give the foreigner a bit of an incentive to stay away from women from another timeline.

Lady Dana seemed hard pressed to keep a grin from showing on her face but he did give her credit for trying as she petted his arm. "Don't worry. He's trying to get two escaped pigs back into their pen. He's got experience with that."

Merlin wouldn't even ask where someone with obviously no experience in anything involving living off the land would gain practise in herding pigs. Who knew what kind of sexual perversions people in the future were up to? "Will was my childhood best friend. He...he died a little while ago. When we were here last time." He cleared his throat. Talking about Will still wasn't easy and he usually avoided the topic of the raid completely; he had let Arthur know, after telling him about his magic, that his friend had not been the one to call that wind and the prince had simply said he had suspected that much by now.

The woman rested a gentle hand against his arm. "I'm sorry." He just nodded. "It is strange. When we were in the other village, he seemed completely out of place, and I thought it was because he wasn't used to being, excuse the phrasing, in such simple surroundings. To say he fits right in here would be a bit much but he seems entirely comfortable." For a moment he thought she was still speaking of Will and it took him a few seconds to realise she actually meant Arthur, who seemed to feel much better in his skin, indeed. But then he wasn't facing a whole village of people who just had all their livestock slaughtered by an unknown creature and now expected he do something about it.

At dinner, Hunith kept looking back and forth between him and Arthur, sitting across from each other eating silently. There had been no opportunity so far to speak at length with her, to tell her that Arthur knew about his magic now. But the two foreigners were still blissfully ignorant on the issue, although he knew, as soon as he had found a way to send them back they'd have to learn about his ability. But by then it would not matter anymore because Lord Fox was robbed of the opportunity to ask questions to the death, then.

"Will you finally tell me why you're here? I appreciate the visit but it is not one of courtesy." Her gaze still rested on them in turn until Arthur sat back.

"We have had attacks in recent months, involving livestock and also people. A warg, in all likelihood." There was no use not coming to the point, after all it was the sole reason why they were there, if he liked it or not.

"Or a werewolf," Mulder spoke up and Arthur just sighed audibly and threw a very long look at his guest. "I'm just saying."

"Well, don't." He smiled at Merlin's mother and hoped it was apologetic. "The latest attack that we know about was just a few hours' ride from here. We actually left from there this morning. We've been wondering if the same attacks have been happening this side of the border."

"...and thought the unofficial way would be more convenient than the official one." Arthur almost reeled. That was probably the most useful thing the stranger had ever said, even if it was uncalled for. The prince looked at him again, wondering if he would ever learn. The barely perceptible shake of head Lady Dana answered his unspoken question, though.

Hunith put two fingers to her mouth, thinking then shook her head. "No, although we received word about the attack the other night. I wouldn't know how to help you, I'm sorry."

Arthur shook his head. "No, don't be." He paused a moment, frowning. What if? "Merlin do you have some parchment somewhere?" His servant nodded, got up and retrieved a round leather container half the size of Arthur's lower arm from his pack out of which he pulled a sheaf of paper and a clean quill. An ink jar followed and everyone looked at him expectantly.

Drawing a rough outline of Albion and the coast a little over the borders, he marked the position of Camelot with a C. "Do you remember when the attacks were exactly? Here, the first three," he added crosses and the month. Mulder dug in his inside coat pocket, he would have to ask his tailors to copy the design when they were back; he wasn't supposed to retain anything from his guests but he figured it was only fair, as much as the man had strained his patience. Finally said man produced a small book and flipped it open to a specific page, just to place it in front of him. On the page were all the dates and even moon phases of the attacks so far, probably copied from the map in the throne hall. Arthur looked up quickly but chose not to comment. Mulder obviously was nothing short of obsessed.

He put in all attacks and dates that were in the book and also the one a few nights ago. "It looks like it's moving north." Lady Dana frowned and came around the table to stand behind him, looking over his shoulder. The ink was still wet so he caught her wrist before her fingers could trace the pattern and smudge his writing; clearly, things were much different in the future. She was right though, while the attacks were centred around Camelot's immediate vicinity, and always returned there, they had been moving closer to the northern border of the kingdom, confirming his earlier thoughts.

"At this rate it is going to cross the border soon," Mulder added quietly. The prince looked up and noticed Hunith's worried look.

"Would you like to come back with us?" he meant the question seriously, although he knew the answer, which came with a smile but was a shaking of the head. She wouldn't leave her home for solely her own safety and they couldn't take the whole village. Arthur wouldn't have minded if the people had settled over, but King Cendred probably counted on the tax payments and could theoretically use it as a reason to wage war. In this situation though they would be no safer in Albion than they were here anyway. So he just smiled back and nodded his understanding, and went back to studying his makeshift map.

"Why would it do that, though? Move north and come back. And how does it do it? Some of those attacks are in consecutive nights and from Camelot to the latest site is more than a day away." Lady Dana's forehead was still wrinkled. "Could it be more than one individual?"

"Let's hope not," he heard Merlin murmur. He agreed, more than one warg...

But they would not be able to do anything about it this night, so he handed the dried parchment and the quill back to Merlin who stored everything away and then asked Mulder to help him get some more water from the well.

"Arthur, would you help me outside?" Hunith asked presently, after showing Lady Dana where it might be best to put down the bedrolls. It was warm now, and with five people in the cottage for sure, but it would be a bit softer than the bare ground; better for the foreigners, who didn't give the impression of being especially used to campaining. He followed Merlin's mother outside to the wood-stack, wondering what she'd need him for. A fire for the night wasn't needed.

Finally, she turned around to face him in the bit of light spilling from the neighbouring cottages and from the almost half-full moon. "You know, don't you?"

He made to answer evasively but decided there was no need or use anyway. "About Merlin? Yes, I do." Somehow though, he wasn't quite ready to tell her what _else_ he knew about (or was doing with) her son; most likely she wouldn't want to know either.

Nodding, she let out a breath, it sounded a lot like relief. "I knew you wouldn't do him any harm when you learned of it." He thought of the storage room, the two days without food or water in the dark and didn't say anything. "You need to look out for him."

"I will." It was a promise he intended to keep, as long as his father was gone and beyond.

"Good," she smiled. "And now tell me everything about those two you brought with you. And don't try to dish up the foreign nobles tale again."

When they were starting to say good night and to turn in, Hunith looked into the two strangers' direction for a long moment and then finally said, "So, you are our future?" Lady Dana and Lord Fox were obviously startled, turned around and both tried to answer but Merlin's mother held up one hand. "It's fine. I made him tell me." She nodded at Arthur with a smile. "Well, I'm glad life doesn't seem to be too boring in the future, it needs some distractions, doesn't it?" And that were the last words spoken that night that they all heard.

There was considerable amusement between Arthur and Merlin, though.


	9. Interludum

"Hey Scully," Mulder spoke up as they were standing on the battlements one day, about a week after returning from Ealdor. "How seaworthy do you think these people are?"

She eyed her partner for a few long moments, wondering what he was getting at. They had spent the past week much like the days before they had ridden out to accompany the prince on his survey; Mulder continuing his sword practise with the knights who still didn't quite know what to make of a man not able to handle the large weapon properly but did indulge in mock duels with him occasionally, Scully herself mostly spending time with Gaius or Morgana, both of whom seemed largely underappreciated at court. She could relate, in the past Mulder had often enough given her the impression that she was only good for cutting up corpses.

In the meantime, her partner had also taken to traversing the castle for its specifics, as if he expected to come upon a room suddenly that held the bones of a giant or the decaying corpse of a dragon. He seemed obsessed with the idea to find something mythical in Camelot, even though nothing did point towards there being anything to that effect but stories. Of course, she still had not told him about the Bestiary Gaius kept as it would only fuel his search.

Arthur and the rest of the court, and everyone seemed to have a different theory regarding the attacks, tried to figure out why the creature was moving north and at the same time circling back to Camelot each and every time. Until the attack on the small village close to the border they had seemed to be random, but now with the definite tendency north it was all the more puzzling. The warg moving north made sense from a biological point of view, it would have to find food, flocks to raid so it would of course move away, but its attacks coming back to the vicinity of court and castle was inconsistent with an animal looking for food. The issue of it being more than one individual still remained on the table but the prince didn't talk about it.

"I don't know, Mulder. Many of the coastal villages would earn their income with fishing I think and considering that the King is currently on the mainland, they are clearly able to cross the channel. But that's only twenty miles across at its narrowest point. Why are you asking?" Her partner had never expressed a desire to go fishing and she couldn't fathom that he remembered their stay on the U.S.S. Argent fondly.

Now he pushed away from the battlement and made his way towards the ladder that led back down to the inner wall perimeter and from there into the courtyard. "Well, I was thinking. Imagine we could get an oceangoing vessel and discover America. A thousand years before Columbus and half a millennium before Leif Ericson, even!"

Blinking, she raised both eyebrows and crossed her arms, waiting until he was down the ladder and holding it for her so she made it down safely. "I thought we'd had this whole discussion about not changing the past drastically and you want to go out and discover a whole new _continent_? I don't think that quite agrees with the whole concept of trying to get back to our own reality."

"But," he whispered in her ear, "maybe this is meant to be. Maybe we're supposed to be here when the battle of Camlann goes down the drain and Avalon is indeed America. And maybe _you_ are the Lady of the Lake, Scully!"

"I think you might have lost your mind, Mulder. Have you thought about how old we are going to have to become before Arthur will fight the battle of Camlann? Do you think you'll still be able to find your sea-legs at age sixty-plus? With a gravely injured man aboard? And what do you want to do about scurvy? Because I have my doubts about lemons and oranges in Britannia in this day and age." Mulder really had the most stupid ideas sometimes.

He only grinned. "We could stuff the hold full of sauerkraut, I'm sure if we hired a Teutonic cook he could come up with lots of tasty recipes." She looked at him more than dubiously but then Mulder called out, "Merlin!" to the boy who was just walking past. They hadn't seen much of him this past week, he seemed always busy with something or other, not looking left or right as he went about his chores and more often than not vanishing into his own room or into Arthur's chambers when he was done with them, even when the prince was nowhere to be seen.

The young man turned around and the smile on his face was just a little bit weary. "Lord Fox, Lady Dana."

"Merlin, I was wondering where I might find the round table." Mulder had been a matter of fact kind of guy for as long as she'd known him but Scully wondered if maybe he could not use a few lessons in tact. Morgana had told her that things between Arthur and Merlin had been difficult right from the beginning because Merlin didn't possess even a semblance of courtly manners nor had a clue of how to act around people higher than his own standing but she thought her partner took the cake when it came to that.

The young man looked at them as if he was wondering if something had gone loose in their heads. "Round table?" he echoed.

"The one Arthur sits down at with his knights? The one with the twenty-five seats?"

Merlin only blinked. "I have no idea what you're talking about. There is no round table and there are more than twenty-five knights in Camelot. Excuse me now, I have to go help Arthur with his armour." Turning around, he could only shake his head. Round table. Did that man even know how much space a round table required to store? And the purpose such a round table was to accomplish was beyond him as well, other than people having to raise their voice even more to talk to those sitting across from them.

"Do you own a round table?" he asked somewhat exasperated when he entered Arthur's chamber and dropped the bundle he was carrying on the bed. Arthur stood in the middle of the room, inspecting his sword for nicks and just raised an eyebrow. "Lord Fox has been asking weird questions again," Merlin mumbled and walked to where his friend's mailshirt hung over a rack.

"Mulder confuses his delusions with reality, I suppose. How are you coming along with sending them back where they came from?" It wasn't like that question came daily but more often than he'd liked. And more often than he had different answers to give, so for the moment he simply chose to make a noncommittal noise while making the mail lift itself off the rack and hover in front of the prince. There were certainly practical uses to his ability that he never even thought of before Arthur had brought them up.

"Not as well as I'd like." Arthur was in mail quicker than ever before these days. "I've thought about it some more, guessing that if I could focus on something of theirs that hasn't quite settled into this time and place yet... So I went ahead and...borrowed some of their clothing."

"You mean you stole it from their rooms," Arthur remarked while he slung his weapon's belt around his hips.

"I've put it back when I figured it wouldn't work." It was a long suffering sigh he had to heave in that moment and it was just so frustrating. "I will need a spell for this. And since there isn't one in the book." He nodded at the cloth-wrapped bundle on the bed, "I have to make one up. It would help if I knew what all the incantations are about."

The prince raised an eyebrow. "You don't know?" Merlin placed the plates on his shoulder and shook his head.

"No. I didn't grow up in the Old Ways, Arthur. There's some Latin in there once in a while but never quite enough to give a real meaning to the words. Often it seems like complete nonsense, just a way to focus the energy." Latin he knew some. Most of Gaius' books were in Latin so he'd been learning slowly. But there was no one at court who was fluent in the old languages, making it not easier for him to get a grip.

"Maybe that's all there is to the words," the other man suggested while adjusting his gauntlets. Merlin frowned. Yes. Maybe. He would spend the afternoon pursuing that thought further.

"Where are you going anyway?" it finally occurred to him that there was no practise with the men and what good reason did the prince have to go out in full armour?

Arthur grinned. "Need to take a look at the state of the fortifications. My father will be furious with me if I let anything fall into disrepair. Want to come with?"

But he just shook his head. "No, thanks. We really should get those two back home. You shouldn't go alone though. Maybe you can take Lady Dana with you? She looked as if she could use the time off." Arthur waved this off as he left the room but reconsidered on his way to the stables. Maybe she would know a way to make her partner stop asking weird questions and snooping around everywhere. Sooner or later he was bound to find something that he wasn't supposed to know about.

Turning around though, he almost collided with Mulder. Sighing, he looked around the man. "Do you know where Lady Dana is? I wanted to ask her to come riding with me."

"I don't think you'll have much luck there, your highness. She was spirited away by the Lady Morgana and I have the persistent suspicion they're discussing women's underthings."

It was delivered so deadpan that Arthur had to blink. "Is that how it is, in your time?" He led the man back towards the stables and motioned for the groom to saddle and tack two horses; he might as well keep him from doing weird things around the castle by taking him outside its walls.

"In my time, Arthur," Mulder sighed, "there are quite a few things happening that you would likely never imagine in even your wildest dreams."

One eyebrow raised, Arthur shot him a dubious look. "Care to enlighten me?" The first horse was brought out and his mare nickered softly when she spotted him. He stroked over her nuzzle softly and let his hands wander down her legs, looking for bumps and warm spots, just in case.

Mulder didn't seem convinced. "What do you know of women's underthings?"

"Enough to have cursed the bloody lacings extensively." He looked up from inspecting a hoof. "Don't give me that look, I've had plenty of women in my bed. Other men my age have a house full of children already." The second horse was brought out and Arthur gave the gelding a quick once-over as well, figuring the foreigner didn't know enough about horses to do it himself, not even after over a month.

"You don't, though." And the implication of 'why not' was clear as day. He sighed.

"Nobility handles these things differently, Mulder. My marriage and my children, are a matter of state, not of personal choosing. Isn't that concept known where you come from at all?" He knew he probably shouldn't ask too many questions but these people came from so far into the future that he would have no part in such proceedings anyway so it was probably safe to talk about.

"Arranged marriage is considered archaic. Which doesn't mean that it doesn't still happen," the older man conceded and shrugged just to return to their previous topic. "They haven't gotten easier. Women's underthings, that is. But back home women might meet for an evening, drink wine and try on new things and parade in front of each other. No men allowed."

Arthur shrugged, not understanding what was so novel about that idea. Men and women tended to stay among themselves in this time already, there was no reason why it should puzzle the other man so much.

When he had judged both horses fit for the outing they mounted, and Mulder was doing somewhat more gracefully than at the beginning, and made their way out of the castle. "Does this always stay down?" the foreigner asked, gesturing at the drawbridge as they passed it at a walk. "I don't think I've ever seen it up, not even at night."

Arthur shook his head in answer. "Only goes up in times of siege. Same for the portcullis going down." They turned left and the horses walked slowly along the moat through the high grass while he kept one eye on the moat itself and the walls. At the same time he had to take care that Mulder didn't stray too far away from him to the right so he didn't trigger one of the other traps that had been set for times of siege, so once in a while he had to reach over and pull the gelding over by a rein or his bridle. People generally knew there were traps but not where exactly, only immediate members of the royal household and the knights knew the exact locations as to circumvent them. Arthur remembered the time when Merlin had almost triggered one and a disaster at court along with it.

"Has that ever happened? A siege? Here?" Mulder looked around at the large trees in the near distance which would have undoubtedly been used for siege engines in such a case.

"Not since I'm alive," Arthur answered and frowned at the thick carpet of algae that covered the water, they would have to get rid of that later. "You would have to ask Geoffrey about the last time. Our main problems currently are the Saxons and they haven't quite reached us here, yet."

Mulder nodded and mumbled something that Arthur couldn't understand but he thought it might be better not to ask for clarification. After a long while the man looked around again, taking in the walls and the meadow and the woods and said, "I never imagined Camelot to be this splendid. I mean the legends talk about it being great and fabulous but I always thought it was just something that got more boisterous as the legends grew." He blinked, realised he had said something he shouldn't and whispered, "Shit."

What the man had said meant several things at once and Arthur took a moment to ponder over all the implications. "So my name is known in your time and Camelot's is, too, but there's nothing else left of it?" It was a weird thought. A large castle didn't just vanish. Although of course, some just fell to ruin after being abandoned for bigger and better abodes or because the blood died.

"Well, I guess that's nothing that is going to change the past... Scholars think Camelot is a construct. There have been...attempts at placing it, the last was in Somerset but nothing has ever come of it. So it has been declared as an invention of literature." Mulder shrugged and Arthur automatically reached over the pull the gelding more to the left again; what was he to think of a man who couldn't even keep his horse from wandering but knew basically all there was to know about his life and what would be left of it a thousand years from now? It was frustrating.

"Somerset?"

"Cadbury Castle," Mulder answered quietly.

Arthur blinked. "That's a centre of commerce but." He fell silent, it was probably no use to get worked up over a mistake that would not be made for an eternity. "There's nothing left of the castle? At all?"

"Britain has many ruins. I would imagine some are still buried in the soil and haven't seen daylight in centuries. Maybe Camelot is among them. I can't tell." Another shrug. "It is also speculated that you had more than just one Seat of power."

Arthur snorted. Did these 'modern scholars' even know what the upkeep of a castle cost? Mortar was missing at several spots, it would have to be replaced. Walls only remained strong when kept in top condition. "What else is there?"

"To Camelot?" He nodded. "Much of it is probably not even remotely true. But it is the centre from which you and your knights go about your many adventures, of which at least half are a work of fiction."

"You think." The nod Arthur received in answer was nothing close of exaggerated. "What makes you think that?"

"Well. For one, there is a lot of magic. And I mean a lot. Like someone at your court is known to be the greatest wizard ever alive. The name is known alongside yours. Actually, as far as popular myth goes, your names are and will be entwined forever. The actual sources place you together, too, so I guess that's just right." Mulder frowned a little at the word 'sources', as if he shouldn't call it that.

Arthur knew he had gone pale. There was feeling in his stomach as if he would lose his lunch any minute and he had to look away. Of course, the foreigner hadn't mentioned the name, probably thinking he followed his father's laws by the letter on this one, too, but the only one who could be this wizard was Merlin. What that meant though, if magic would one day return to the kingdom by both of their hands or if it was just a later addition of history he couldn't know. Damn the man and all his knowledge. Clearing his throat Arthur finally managed to say, "Magic is banned from the kingdom."

"Yes, I know." Another shrug and the horse was wandering again. Scowling, Arthur reached over and this time retained a hold on the tack while his eyes kept searching along the walls and battlements. "The legend conveniently skips that detail."

"Of course it does. It makes for a lousy story." Bards were looking for adventures and tales of epic proportions, not for laws and political processes.

"Probably. Almost as lousy as the crown prince himself riding perimeter or keeping watch. So why do you do it?" It was a genuine question, that much Arthur could see when he threw a glance at his guest.

"I know where the traps are," he smirked and saw Mulder get a little paler. "There is almost always something to repair or take care of and I would have to ride out here and look at it if I sent someone to take a first survey anyway. It saves my men time if I do it. As for watch, every man needs the same amount of rest, if they're a King, a prince, a knight or an ordinary servant. It wouldn't do to insist on special treatment; I have to rely on them and they on me, that is how we survive." He could probably still have insistent on not taking watch and not riding perimeter but he didn't feel well in his skin doing something like that. Men had died for him, he had to repay their peers with his deeds.

They finished the inspection in silence and Arthur thought Mulder maybe wasn't as annoying as he had been thinking.


	10. The Truth

Merlin was shaking him and calling his name with the direst urgency in his voice but Arthur was bone deep tired and only opened his eyes reluctantly. Arthur didn't even know if Merlin had come into bed at any point that night, like a lot of other nights these past few weeks. His enthusiasm for working on the spell that would send the foreigners back home was renewed, had been ever since a few weeks ago.

And it seemed to pay off, too. One evening he had been sitting fascinated on Arthur's bed, legs drawn under him and stared at a specific spot. There was nothing. Merlin said that was the point and placed a twig from the log-stack next to the fireplace on the bed, said a long and convoluted sounding sentence of which Arthur did not recognise a single word and the twig vanished. He had been stunned.

The twig, Merlin explained, represented Lady Dana and Mulder, he just thought practising with something small and unobtrusive would be safest and Arthur did agree. So, his servant couldn't tell if the twig really went into the timeline he was aiming for but chances were good it was and even if not, they at least would be rid of the two strangers. Arthur had cuffed him gently for that remark but he had to agree, the sooner everything in Camelot returned to normal the better. Merlin asked Lady Dana and Mulder for their birthdays, which Arthur didn't know what it was good for but magic was Merlin's resort, he would tweak the spell until they could use it for two large and living people. So Arthur left him to it. Even if, for him, it meant mostly falling asleep alone because Merlin tended to mutter to himself until late into the night. Still, it felt good to just keep each other company, had an air of familiarity; something Arthur wasn't used to.

All of that, however, didn't quite give his servant reason to shake him awake in the dead of night after a day spent chasing goats. Mulder had accidentally freed the damn things, and no one could even fault him for it either, he had just not closed the gate quickly enough before they could break out. The man's backside probably showed more than just a few bruises by now. It had taken the two of them and twenty knights to catch and pen the animals again, some of them mean as nothing Arthur had ever encountered before, not caring any for rank or status.

"Merlin, I really had a blood-"

A hand covered his mouth. "Listen." Sounds wafted up from the courtyard through the unshuttered window. A growl, a grunt. Nothing that would have triggered his senses normally but combined with the little yelp and the worried expression on his friend's face, Arthur was awake immediately. The area below his windows was quiet and unlit when he looked outside, completely normal. There it was though, another grunt of pain. A bellow, a growl.

He was at the door before he even realised it but the heavy oak wouldn't budge. Almost as if- Arthur turned around and Merlin had one hand stretched out in front of him. "Armour." Just that one word.

"Merlin," he said sternly but the door still didn't move one single bit. There was no time for playing games. He looked back again and suddenly invisible bands wrapped around his wrist and held them together.

"You can try and fight me on this or you can come over here and this will be quick." Arthur debated with himself for a long second if he should try to struggle and break his friend's magic but he knew, from experience, that Merlin's magical bonds were rather effective. Digging his nails into his palms he gave up, let his friend throw him the gambeson and slipped into it after being released. The mail was made quick work of, once more with the help of magic and the door unsealed when he belted on his sword.

In any other situation Arthur would have raised an eyebrow at the underlying theme at some point while going though the motions of their, by now, accustomed moves but this wasn't the time for innuendo. Men were possibly dying out there and he couldn't get to them until he was properly dressed. They ran down the stairs as quick as they could, Arthur telling Merlin exactly how many days in the stocks this manoeuvre would cost him.

The courtyard, when they stepped into it, was hardly more than carnage. Arthur could see the guards assigned to the portcullis lying still and unmoving, most likely dead. The ground was soaked in blood and made wet sounds as they walked over it; sickly wet, bloody mud sticking to the boots they had put on in a hurry. He heard Merlin swallow loudly behind him, the stench of iron thick in the air and the state of the ground more a matter of smell and sound than of sight. The moon was almost gone this night and the guard fires merely illuminated the two bodies at the gate. For this much blood though, for it had not rained in more than a week to account for the wetness, there had to be more of them.

His boot bumped against a lump, making clinking sounds and he bent down; felt plates, mail...emptyness. Jerking his hand back he squinted at it, then down to the floor. His gauntlet had come away bloody and he didn't even want to imagine what the hole he had put his hand into contained, or didn't contain for that matter. Suddenly, he was grateful for the darkness enshrouding them.

Another grunt, a sound of pain, a growl. Wet sounds, tearing of cloth, something hard ringing against metal. Merlin's breathing had gotten louder and Arthur knew that his friend's stomach was trying to claw its way out of his body. Arthur himself was feeling sick. He knew, he'd seen this on the battlefield before, countless of times, but this was his home and unlike all the other times, right now he had to assume this was the blood of men he knew, of men he had trained, fought with side by side. His hands clenched.

They were inching closer to the sound for this had remained in one place, not moving. The wet sounds continued, cracking and crunching accompanying it, like bones being- He shut away that thought.

Something was visible now, a shadow blacker than the rest, barely distinguishable from the surrounding darkness but the wall it was standing in front of reflected just enough light to make out a general shape. Huge. Bent over, just a lumpy shape until it lifted what was likely to be the head. Snorting. The sound of breathing, sniffing breaths to draw in not only air but smell. A low growl that could be more felt than heard rumbled through the night.

Arthur stopped, remaining absolutely still, one hand stretched out towards Merlin so they wouldn't bump into one another.

The creature moved so quickly that all he could do was shove Merlin backward and jump ahead himself, drawing his sword in the same movement. The thing had stretched up to it full height and leaped towards them. The thump when it hit the ground was loud and indicated a weight that just might be able to crush them all on its own, the glint of teeth in a wet nuzzle that reflected the little light available didn't give reason for confidence.

"Arthur!" Merlin called and it was loud enough that it was audible across the yard, drawing attention to them and the slaughter that had taken place.

The creature sniffed again, still not much more than a moving shadow, turned around and faced him. Or at least Arthur suspected it faced him because it was moving forward slowly, growling from deep in its body, towards him, clearly having singled him out as the one to take care of first, the one with the weapon. Merlin had vanished into the darkness, his darker clothing concealing him from Arthur's sight.

Merlin wanted to curse but didn't have the breath for it as he ran towards the building that housed some of Camelot's knights while they remained at court. He had wanted to set the torches ablaze to help Arthur see the thing but couldn't, the holders were empty. If they survived this he would make sure Arthur ripped whoever was responsible for keeping them stocked a new one. He had seen four bodies at the very least, there were probably more, considering all the blood that covered the courtyard. Pulling himself together had been an enormous effort of will, he had just wanted to stumble back and vomit but he hadn't. And when they had spotted the creature, the warg for it had to be that, something hot had washed through him that had wiped away the nausea and left him alert and vibrating with nerves.

Then the warg had leaped.

He threw open the doors to the building ahead of him with magic, it didn't matter if he was caught now, not when Arthur was in mortal danger. He had an idea of what had happened to those other corpses that must be there. Storming into the main room, where men in various states of undrress but mostly alert, stumbled from doorways and stared at him. "Warg," he panted. "Courtyard. Arthur fighting it." Not the most brilliant speech but it did bring the message across and the men set into motion immediately, vanishing quickly into the alcoves where they stored their belongings they returned with swords but mostly without armour.

Putting on mail took forever if it wasn't done with magic and Merlin couldn't haven done it for all of the men one way or another, not with the speed they were all storming out the front door, streaming around him like water around a rock. Some still in their night clothes, those who slept naked had jumped into breeches and tunics but hardly anyone wore as much as a gambeson. There was no time to worry about this now though. Many men would die before the night was out.

Turning around he spotted a couple of torches just outside the front door, stacked neatly for easy grabbing. He was breathing hard, could already hear sounds of fighting, possibly even more sounds of dying from the other side of the yard. It was easy to command the torches to the holders. There were by far not enough to cover all and illuminate the whole compound properly but it should give Arthur and his knights an idea of what they were up against, it should help them to differ friend from foe and maybe they could anticipate the warg's moves.

His men were around Arthur in a flurry of steal and bodies all of a sudden, attacking with him from other sides, covering his back. Arthur saw Merlin's eyes flash golden from a distance, spared half a thought hoping no one had noticed anything and then the glow of torches illuminated the yard. And yet there still was not much to see, the beast remained a shadow, the dark fur covering it only contributing to the effect.

But he could make out his men, not one of them in armour. And now he could also make out the bodies, the two guards and three more men on the ground around him, those last three disembowelled, it was their blood they all were walking in.

The beast growled again, lashed out with one huge paw, catching one man on the calf and shredding his skin. Two others barely managed to drag him out of reach.

Merlin saw the warg dart forward with that unbelievable speed again, saw two men go down without so much as a yelp.

He couldn't see much more from his position in the doorway though. The warg was a predatory beast, movement would attract its attention but here he was standing against illumination from the back, Merlin was clearly visible so he moved away slowly, once more across the blood-covered yard, towards the castle.

Arthur's sword moved, caught torchlight and reached the creature, the tip buried itself in the flesh. The beat only snarled though, let out an even deeper growl and charged again and didn't stop moving this time, either. It was nothing more than a moving black shape, swallowing the light and evading the blades of the men, cutting the legs out from under them, shredding skin.

Steps sounded behind Merlin, wet, quick sounds on the ground and when he turned around he saw Lord Fox and Lady Dana running towards him, practically skidding to a stop at his side.

"What is-" Lord Fox started to speak and then his gaze fell upon the carnage. "Holy shit." He brought his arms up as Lady Dana had already done, both of them holding the hunting devices that Arthur had confiscated from them after their arrival. Merlin realised absently that they must have gotten them back from the throne hall where both pieces had been locked into a chest.

"Scully, do you have a shot?" the man's voice sounded strained, tense.

A moment passed, Lady Dana aimed carefully but eventually shook her head. "Too fast. Can't get a clean shot in, would definitely injure someone."

Both of them inched closer towards the battle, making frustrated sounds.

Merlin knew, he might regret it. "Would that kill it? Can you kill it with that?"

"Most likely," Lady Dana answered curtly, never lowering the device in her hands.

"Would need silver for a werewolf," Mulder murmured but Merlin chose to ignore him.

One step brought him ahead of the two foreigners but off to the side so he didn't stand in their line of sight. Whatever it was they had put into those devices, it had lodged deep into one of the castle walls, it was clearly dangerous. Extending his hand he concentrated. On the warg. On Arthur. On all the men he saw and conversed with every day and knew at least by name, if not not all of them by heart and mind. On the two foreigners slightly behind him, whom he could only feel but not see.

Movement slowed. Moments lengthened. It was the same as the day he had saved Arthur from the knife, the day Uther had made him his son's manservant. The warg was still faster than the men and he concentrated more on the beast. He willed it to slow. Willed it so hard he could hardly breath anymore, felt sweat trickle down between his shoulder blades.

"Can you get it?" he asked just loud enough for the two foreigners to understand him.

Scully didn't know what was happening, Merlin had stepped up alongside them and suddenly the scene in front of them _slowed down_. Literally. Sounds were drawn out and it was almost as if she watched a movie in slow motion. "Mulder," she said quietly, alerting, asking.

"I see it." They were both still aiming, waiting for an opening.

After several seconds and the movements in front of them got even slower. "Can you get it?" Merlin asked and he was breathless, panting. She thought she could hear his heart racing. Or maybe it was Mulder's. Or her own.

Mulder had overcome his inhibition of taking a risk when shooting long ago but this situation was yet different from anything he had ever faced before. This was the past. But if they didn't act- Arthur's blond head moved a fraction of an inch and Scully's field was clear. "Yes." Pulling the trigger, she emptied the whole clip of her gun, retrieved from the great hall, watched the bullets hit. Mulder followed a split second later when his own field of vision cleared. The _thing_ did a kind of ridiculous dance, toppled over and fell. All of it in slow motion.

Merlin sagged down on his knees, head bowed, body heaving and time resumed its normal flow. She knelt down next to the boy, one hand on his shoulder and wanted to ask if he was okay. She didn't get to it though, her gaze was drawn to the warriors for there was a sudden burst of voices and the men stormed towards where the beast had fallen and she saw swords come away bloody in the dim torchlight, only Arthur stood aside, had turned around and stared at them. Mulder jogged past her and pulled the prince aside, out of weapon's reach and yelled at the other men, the agent in him taking command.

Prying her eyes away and trusting her partner to rally the men out of their blood-thirst she turned to Merlin, who had stopped trying to suck in air and gotten up by now. "Are you all right?" she asked as she got up herself and secured her weapon in the holster.

"Fine," he answered. "It took more effort than I thought, though."

She blinked. "What did?"

"You saw, Lady Dana." He smiled and walked towards Arthur.

"You did that," Arthur hissed and grabbed his arm.

"Lady Dana and Lord Fox did it," Merlin murmured and pulled away to look at what was left of the warg. It wasn't much. And it was bloody. Nothing more than a pulp of flesh was left, the shape almost unrecognisable for the blows of the sharp edges of swords. The hands were severed, lay to the side; they looked human but for the nails which looked like claws, the nail plates thick and curved. Fur must have covered the body for where it had not been hacked open the body still looked shadowy in the insufficient torchlight.

He knew, Arthur was still staring at him but the prince just mad an annoyed noise and turned to his men, yelling, taking his anger out on them. They had lost control, given in to their frustration, something that would cost them their life on the battlefield sooner or later. Lord Fox turned to Lady Dana after surveying the remnants of the beast once more. "Scully, I want a full autopsy."

~*~

"Subject is 220 centimeters long, most likely male. Outside genitalia are missing, probably removed by a sword cut as neither testicles nor a penis could be retrieved from the scene." She saw Mulder cringe but, to his credit he didn't make a comment. Arthur and Merlin looked on impassively, the prince having suffered nothing worse than almost black bruises. Gaius was out holding vigil over the more gravely injured knights who had been brought to the barracks building.

Scully didn't work with her bare hands this time but only with the torture instruments, using them to cut and lift tissue aside. It wouldn't do to catch rabies. The stench emanating from the chopped up bowels was mind-numbing. "There is not much to be said about the state of the organs, all have been injured by sword-blows, the small intestine is fractured into more than thirty distinct pieces, the large intestine into ten. The liver looks mottled, covered in knots and is hard to the touch, probably due to advanced cirrhosis. Kidneys seem to have been healthy and functional at the time of death, although kidney stones could be found in the urethra.

"Further examination confirms male sex, prostate gland and vas deferens are present. No remnants of Müllerian duct structures can be found.

"Stomach contents reveal raw meat, from witness reports this is most likely human. This suspicion is given credibility by the pieces of fabric that were also found in the gastric tract. Confirmation could only by achieved by an antibody test." She looked up. "Arthur would you help me with the ribs again?" The prince nodded and silently came towards her, grabbed the pinchers and set to work with a grim expression on his face. "Thank you.

"The thorax cavity is filled with blood." Most of the bullets had hit the beast in the chest while it was on its hind legs. She removed the bullets but didn't bother to count them, she knew they amounted to two clips minus one, looking as that had been fired during their first meal at the castle. "Lungs seem to have been healthy prior to perforation with high velocity projectiles. Their volume can only be estimated but I put it at eight to nine liters. The heart has been torn apart by the same projectiles, I estimate its weight at six to seven hundred grams.

"Concluding remarks: The organs don't correspond in weight and volume with average human values, abnormalities can be attributed to the over-average bulk of the individual. The hands were hacked off but could be retrieved at the scene. They have five digits and opposable thumbs, hinting at a human or humanoid species; the claws tipping each digit that have been identified as looking like those of a wolf. Face is elongated into a snout but other than the canines, which look predatory, the teeth are human with abnormal embrasures. Examination of the joins of elbow and shoulder have revealed signs of wear that only correspond with the subject walking on four legs at least some of the time. The legs themselves are muscular and resemble those of a predatory animal in its structure, the subject walked on its toes, not on the whole foot. Prior to its death, the body was covered in black fur with white tips, sources have confirmed it looking and feeling like a wolf pelt. Report end." She fell silent and looked at the three men.

Mulder finished his shorthand notes with an audible scratch of a quill that almost ripped the page he had been writing on and returned her gaze, held it. She waited for him to burst out with his werewolf theory, knew that her findings were fuel to it but also knew that the sufficiency of simple bullets as opposed to those made of silver confused him. Her partner said nothing, just shook his head and frowned.

"Would this be a typical warg?" she asked the two other men instead. Merlin shrugged, Arthur shook his head.

"I've never seen one myself," the prince remarked quietly while she washed her hands and rinsed the instruments. The body would be covered up and carried outside in a few hours, to be burned as soon as enough wood was stacked. "They're common enough that everyone knows what they are but only truly appear every couple of years. Last time we had a warg problem I wasn't even ten and my father slew it himself, deeming it too dangerous to take me along. Now I know what he meant."

Another long silence followed during which she finished her cleaning procedure and pulled off the shirt she had on over her clothing. Prince and servant had the decency to look away but even then, Mulder just stared at her with a pensive expression. She sighed. "Mulder."

"Merlin, do you have magic?" She rolled her eyes; her partner had never been the most subtle of people but he didn't have to use confronting interrogation techniques on innocent parts of the public.

Merlin meanwhile paled and his lips pressed together. Arthur's expression hardened, his jaw set and he turned an icy glare at her partner. "These matters will not be discussed within the walls of this castle. That is an order."

"I'm not one of your subjects. With all due respect, your highness," said the agent as calm as anything and Scully thought about creative ways to use the torture implements on him.

The prince wouldn't relent though. "I can still have you thrown into the dungeons. Will all due respect, naturally." The two men stared at each other, two mules who wouldn't budge, alpha males who never wasted a thought on giving up. If nothing happened, they'd continue it until one of them fainted from dehydration.

The matter wasn't if Merlin had magic or not, not for her anyway, but with the legal situation in Camelot regarding accusations of possessing magic, she could understand why Arthur had intervened, if he believed any of it or not. She still didn't have an explanation for the time-phenomenon that had allowed them to shoot. Stepping between the two men she turned her look at both of them in turn. "Enough. Mulder this is not one of your thought experiments to develop a theory, this involves lives at stake. Literally."

Mulder turned his gaze towars her and they just looked at each other for several seconds; they both knew the facts and finally her partner nodded. Merlin seemed to be relieved that the topic had been dropped but his eyes also looked at them a little quizzical, as if he was trying to read what had passed between them.

Arthur let out an audibly breath and turned around. "Come on, Merlin. Time to-"

"No... Arthur." The boy shugged. "I can... I can send them back."

A huge grin spread on Arthur's face but Scully could only stare at Merlin, knowing Mulder was mirrioring her pose. Several seconds later she realized, those few simple words meant they could go home. But they also meant bidding farewell without the possibility to ever return. A nagging feeling of loss was already lodging itself deep inside her.

~*~

"Merlin?"

Blue eyes flashed golden and his friend nodded. "Ready."

"The matter is simple. And, at the same time, complicated." They were in Arthur's rooms, he had told the foreigners to pack up their things, or rather dress in the clothing they had arrived in and come to his bedchamber. He could hear the shells of the bolts from the weird devices jiggle in Lady Dana's pocket. "This room now is sealed from spying eyes and ears, no one can eavesdrop or look in on us."

"I can do magic," Merlin just stated as he had all those months ago towards his friend and lover already. Lady Dana looked like she wanted to speak but in the end seemed to decide against it, Mulder just made eyes big as trenchers. To demonstrate, all candles in the room flickered on. "Gaius knows. And Arthur."

Samesaid nodded. "Merlin might have magic but to say he was trained or even remotely proficient would be overstating it massively. The law, and all." The two foreigners nodded numbly. "A while ago I asked Merlin to try a spell that would allow a look into the future. It didn't work. Instead, you two appeared two days later."

"I didn't have a way to send you back," Merlin continued, "and that's why you've been here this long. But now... Now I can."

"Wait wait wait." Mulder held up both hands. "Magic...is real. That with the werewolf..." Arthur narrowed his eyes. "With the _warg_ , the time slowing down..." Arthur nodded, frowning. How could that ever have been disputed? "See Scully, I told you! The legends are all-"

"Mulder!" Annoyed. Angry.

"Right. Well." It was obviously hard for him not to go on and let the matter drop, once and for all. "This is goodbye, then?" The man looked a little disappointed.

"I thought you were happy to get back home, not risk changing your past?" That's what they had said, they were afraid of changing their own time by changing anything here and now.

Lady Dana smiled. "We are, Arthur. But it also means we'll never see any of you again. This is farewell and goodbye forever. And it is a little sad." She shrugged, probably because she couldn't do anything else. They all knew this to be the truth.

Arthur exchanged a look with Merlin. "Oh well. If you... Should you ever require help and see a way to send word to us? Use it. We'll do what we can." Lady Dana's smile widened and she nodded. It probably was an empty promise from four of them, but maybe Merlin would find a way.

"Thank you, your highness." Mulder grinned, for him this was obviously not the last time they'd met. What a strange man. "One word of advice though: Be careful of who you trust." Arthur frowned once more but acknowledged it with a nod.

Lady Dana looked around and sighed. "Tell Morgana and Gwen I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye personally. Take care of yourselves, both of you."

Arthur nodded. It was all said and done, any longer would just draw out everything unnecessarily. "You take care, too. Your time seems infinitely more dangerous than ours. Lady Dana, Mulder." He bowed ever so slightly and nudged Merlin.

His friend smiled. "I hope we will meet again." A torrent of words followed, unintelligible, running together, eyes glowing long and intensely and then... The two strangers were gone, just vanished from right in front of them.

Merlin took a long breath and let spell protecting the room from spying drop as well. "And now?"

"Now life goes back to being ordinary." Arthur that with a wink and made for the door.

Merlin threw him a dubious look. "I don't think life has been ordinary for a single day since I've come here, Arthur." His friend laughed.


	11. Epilogue: Home

_Addendum_   
_While this is not a field journal entry, I feel the need to attach my thoughts to the transcribed autopsy reports I received from Mulder._

_Those reports are the physical evidence that the time Mulder and I spent in Camelot was not a delusional episode on my part, as for him and I to have experienced the exact same delusion seems unlikely. Consequently, I will take the experiences I had there at face value._

_I do not know what the manner of transportation from the present day America to medieval Britain was or the other way around. The chances that the young man Merlin we met indeed possesses magic seem slim at best, even though Mulder keeps insisting on it. Nor do I have an explanation for the slowed perception of time, which made it possible for us to kill the wargwulf._

_The existence of the creature itself might be explained by genetic throwbacks, atavisms, which led an embryo to revert to certain evolutionary steps before the emergence of man. This has been reported previously on many occasions for additional nipples, elongated tailbones or the nictitating membrane of the eye. We dealt with so called 'freaks' back in 1995 already and all of them were accidents of nature or self-made. We cannot assume, as Mulder does, that we're dealing with a werewolf here, just because it fits the perceived pattern of such. How the wargwulf managed to get to places that are more than a day's ride apart within less than that timespan remains unknown. More than one individual might be a valid explanation; at this point we can neither verify nor reject this possibility outright, too much time has passed._

_We have found no evidence that our stay in Camelot had any kind of effect on the present. Mulder has concluded and is convinced that the Novikov self-consistency principle applies and we were always meant to go back to Camelot, that we were a part of the past and the legend from the start. If I was to speculate on the nature of our impact on time and history I would have to say that I do not believe that there is one. I can't assume we were meant to go back as that defies the principle of linear time. My judgement on the matter remain ambiguous in accordance with the fragments of the Arthurian Legend that survived into our time._

_The English crown as it is today derives from Wessex, not from Wales, where the Arthurian tale originated. Therefore it is sensible to assume that none of the people we met in Camelot had an influence on the later royal houses, meaning that it is likely that Arthur Pendragon's line indeed ended with him as legend suggests. I derive this theory from the fact that Camelot and its inhabitants, Arthur and Merlin as well as Morgana, Guinevere and the knights, are now only known as figures of legend, far removed from reality and devoid of actual historical value other than entertainment._

_I close this entry with a heavy heart, since taking our leave, being sent back, means acknowledging the end of the lives we left behind, the deaths of people who made a place for us in their world. Supposedly Byron was right when he said that goodbyes should be sudden if forever._

Dana Scully closed the laptop with what seemed ultimate finality, yet was unable to tear her gaze away from the bouquet of flowers that had arrived at the office that day. There was no card, no note and when questioned the courier was only able to trace the order to an account in the United Kingdom. That probably meant nothing.

-FIN-


End file.
